The film "Thelma" by Joachim Trier, pushed from Norway to "Oscar" on the one hand, is a love story of two girls, on the other - a mystical thriller in which the main character has supernatural abilities (she herself initially has a poor understanding of what). I will tell you why the movie picture Trier deservedly nominated for the main film award in the world.
Speaking about this director, it is accepted - when with biting irony, and when with a sincere desire to help figure it out, - by all means specify. "Note, this is not the Trier". Norwegian Joachim Trier is only the namesake of the famous Dane, but since he took up directing, the curse has been haunting him. Is it necessary to add that in all three (each was marked by festivals and prizes) his full-length films, thoughtful and psychologically accurate studies of modernity, had nothing to do with the provocative parables of Lars von Trier. And here's a paradox: the fourth full meter of the Norwegian "Thelma" - the most vivid and original film, deservedly put forward by Norway for the Oscar, turned out to be the first where the dialogue with Lars von Trier is clearly visible between the lines. In particular, with his "Antichrist".
Unlike previous works by Joachim Trier, "Thelma" is not based on realistic material, in a sense, this is a genre film that fits the definition of "mystical thriller". Perhaps that is why he was not taken to the big European festivals (the debut "Reprise" Trier was shown and won a prize at Karlovy Vary, and "Oslo, 31. august" and "Louder Than Bombs" were represented in Cannes). However, the most valuable thing in Thelma is its borderlessness, which is not defined in customary terms, the thoughtful lag between conventions of several genres at once and the experiments of the author's cinema.
The heroine of the film is a young student named Thelma (actress Eili Harboe, obviously a future star, beautiful with some unobvious, gradually manifested beauty), who came from her father in Oslo and is just getting used to living in a big city. Her cautious manner and harsh reactions are explained almost immediately. Thelma's parents are committed Christians. Mother is traumatized by obscure past and paralyzed, in a wheelchair, father is a doctor by profession, who remotely controls her daughter’s every step: for example, he compares her stories about the past school day with the schedule of courses downloaded from the Internet. However, mom and dad’s anxiety is not groundless. From time to time with Thelma, there are unexplained seizures, during which the hell is happening around - that things move from place to place, there are drops of electricity. In addition, this is just the beginning.
In a sense, "Thelma" is a bildungsroman, as well as a story about "nurturing the senses". Thelma meets a girl named Anja (Kaya Wilkins), and they clearly like each other - even despite the difference in the background and world views. However, the first sexual experience, which the heroine uniquely identifies for herself as a sin, is about to lead to a catastrophe. It is too dignified to sit with a new girlfriend in the theater hall at the ballet for Thelma - too much, not to mention something more serious. The trouble is coming.
"Thelma" by Joachim Trier is both easy and difficult to put in context. This is a picture of lesbian love, somewhat reminiscent of many films - from "Show Me Love" by Swede Lukas Moodysson, the happy manifesto of bodily freedom, to the "French Blue Is the Warmest Color" by Abdelatif Kechiche. However, the approach of the Norwegian director is fundamentally different. Today, students in love with each other in Oslo will not cause any sidelong glance, there is no question of social transgression, as was the case with Moodysson. However, to look at the novel Thelma and Anja just as usual relations (approximately, as Kechiche sees this conflict) Joachim Trier does not agree either. Thelma knows that it breaks the most important taboo, and for her this is the highest manifestation of the emancipation of the family structure. Crossing the border separating the family from society, a step into the abyss.
Largely, "Thelma" is not just a private story, but also a study of the current ultra-liberal Europe, where everything is allowed and everything is rational. The terrible gift of the heroine, which she is not able to control, as if she is rebelling against this artificial paradise, demanding to balance him with personal hell - retribution for excessive freedom. Thelma is "Carrie" the writer of Stephen King, but vice versa. She throws thunder and lightning in response not to prohibitions and persecutions, but to openness and permissiveness.
However, it would also be wrong to see the manifesto of obscurantism in the film. "Thelma" echoes two significant German tapes - "Requiem" by Hans-Christian Schmid and "Stations of the Cross" by Dietrich Brüggemann, in each of which the heroine became a victim (literally) of Christian fundamentalism, as well as the Romanian drama "Beyond the Hills" by Cristian Mungiu, where from the unbelieving girl the monks cast out demons, but so actively that she died. All three directors are staunch atheists, their position was clear. Joachim Trier quite unexpectedly takes the gift of Thelma seriously. That remained only to believe that she is a born witch, so that her gift would gain full strength. It turns out that parents had serious motives to keep their daughter in extreme severity.
Thelma (2017) | Official US Trailer HD
However, the ambiguous ending of the film avoids any moralizing. Turning away from two obvious poles - liberal rationalism and Christian obedience - Joachim Trier, along with his heroine, offers a third, essentially pagan view. Nature takes over, laughing at the naive attitudes of man. Here we recall the instructive story of a woman from "Antichrist" by Lars von Trier. She long considered herself a human rights activist, studying the history of witch-hunts in medieval Europe, until she realized the inquisitors' right. Joachim Trier is younger and more optimistic than Lars von Trier - in the witch’s nature of women he sees the path to true liberation and a fragile but genuine utopia.
A leisurely, quiet, unobtrusive intonation of "Thelma", filmed and filmed, gives the effect of an amazing emotional crescendo, leading to an unexpected denouement. In this sense, the film is like its heroine, concealing many surprises.
The illustrations are used in agreement with the Depositphotos photobank
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