An alternate title for Dreams, the final film in Dag Johan Haugerud’s Oslo trilogy Sex/Love/Dreams, could be “Visions of Johanne.” Seventeen-year-old Johanne develops a huge crush on her teacher and near namesake, Johanna — even showing up unannounced at her apartment in such a state that the teacher is moved to console her. A friendship develops — perhaps something more.
Cut to a year later. Johanne has filtered her heartbreak into a piece of autobiographical writing, which she shyly shares with her grandmother, a poet. Granny is surprised by the content, but she’s shocked by the quality of the prose. She tells her granddaughter she must show it to her mother… and maybe to a publisher.
As we see a personal experience transmuted into something else, something which touches on sexual politics, ethics and morality, the film accrues an acerbic comic nuance, and invites us to ponder how writing can be both therapeutic and dangerous, just as a love story can be affirmative and a kind of betrayal. This is a rich, absorbing film, arguably the best of a remarkable trilogy. It won the top prize, the Golden Bear, at the Berlin Film Festival in February.
Droll… a smart, sensitive queer coming-of-age story.
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
A sly, garrulous, mischievous piece.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Dag Johan Haugerud
Ella Øverbye, Selome Emnetu, Ane Dahl Torp, Andrine Sæther, Ingrid Giæver, Lars Jacob Holm
Norway
2025
In Norwegian with English subtitles
Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival
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Credits
Executive Producer
Espen Osmundsen, Kari Moen Kristiansen, Tanya Nanette Yildiz Badendyck, Hege Skjerven Clausen
Producer
Yngve Sæther, Hege Hauff Hvattum
Co-Producer
Leif Holst Jensen
Screenwriter
Dag Johan Haugerud
Cinematography
Cecile Semec
Editor
Jens Christian Fodstad
Original Music
Anna Berg
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