Sex

The snappy three-letter title gets straight to the heart of what this film’s central musings are going to revolve around, but anyone hoping for visual aids should be warned to curb their anticipation.

Director Dag Johan Haugerud’s latest feature starts with images of a street in an urban Norwegian area, before moving to a building with a window facing this traffic, and in front of it a man (Thorbjørn Harr) relaying a sensuous dream to his co-worker (Jan Gunnar Røise) on their lunch break. The camera appreciatively pans across the table, slowly framing the other character in its centre. In a somewhat perplexing apropos, our new protagonist details a surprising sexual adventure he’d embarked on the previous day.

The men are revealed to be chimney sweeps, supposedly living and breathing good luck charms to those crossing their path, but through their profession, the audience is permanently confronted with different types of infrastructure. Staircases, balconies and construction sites are central visual motifs, but the cinematography equally makes use of interior designs of their respective homes. Immovables are the polar opposite to the humans traversing these spaces, who are governed by fluidity and instability.

In scenes reminiscent of last year’s Panorama entry Passages, the main character seems happy to share news of the romp with his wife and is bewildered to find her utterly destroyed by the confession. Again, shot mostly in a single take, he tries to get comfortable in a chair during this awkward discussion about what they each constitute as infidelity. While there is a distinct visual language to the film, one may be able to lament a certain cinematic ambition, but nothing speaks against this film finding its audience through streaming services.

Through its hilarious script, filled with dry humour and eccentric but smart dialogue, Sex succeeds in making valid points about the social constructs of sexuality we take for granted, for instance, our barely questioned presumptions of a monopoly of monogamy.

Selina Sondermann

Sex does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2024 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.