Team Hurricane

Every generation is critical of the one that follows. Being unable to understand the language and logic of young people will always frustrate their elders into dismissing and marginalising them. This has never been more true than when talking about the ambivalent moniker of “Millennial”. Team Hurricane (aka Forever 13) won the most innovative award at this year’s Venice Critic’s club for creating a vital, new aesthetic based on the world of Instagram filters and Tumblr motifs to tell a vital story of a group of young people.

Team Hurricane follows a group of teenage girls in a small town in Denmark, who meet at a youth club over the course of a summer. This simple story alternates between the elated adventures they go on together and the crushing insecurities they struggle with in private. Each girl has a loud, individual style that thrives in this team of vagabonds but when they’re alone they reveal their true vulnerable selves.

Every colour on screen is saturated and explosive; every scene unfolds like a DIY music video with break-neck cuts, over-the-top angles and a cloud rap soundtrack that takes the audience along for the ride. While it’s true we’ve seen big corporations desperately scramble to adopt a similar style to reach the kids on social media, director Annika Berg achieves authenticity by providing substance behind the style.

We witness the growth and development of the characters over this summer together as they crash parties, wander aimlessly through their suburbs and explore their sexual identity. John Hughes would be proud to see his legacy live on. 

The focus rests permanently on the young girls, men play minor roles (the misguided SexEd guidance counsellor) so the narrative delivers a poignant and inclusive exploration of burgeoning femininity in a variety of forms. Annika Berg’s debut feature is a bold imagining of what cinema could look like in the future: brash aesthetic combined with a heart-on-the-sleeve, emotionally driven narrative.

Sean Gallen

Team Hurricane does not have a UK release date yet.

Watch the trailer for Team Hurricane here: