NZIFF25 Love PG

What is love? The age-old question finds a contemporary and adult declination in Dag Johan Haugerud's final chapter to his Sex Dreams Love trilogy, premiered to universal acclaim at the Venice Film Festival 2024. Long, bright Oslo summer days form the backdrop as two medical colleagues, one straight, the other gay, follow parallel trajectories in the games of love, attraction, sex and empathy. Meeting by chance on a ferry, the two describe their searches for intimacy. Marianne is into dating and is looking for love, Tor is looking for sex - by cruising for men on dating apps as he rides to and fro on the ferries. Through Haugerud's effortlessly unpredictable writing, the ferry turns into a magic vessel where the destinies of these two take unexpected turns… With Love, Haugerud questions conventions with detached humor, yet he always treats his characters with profound compassion, delivering an eloquent and moving masterpiece on human relationships in the 21st century. — Paolo Bertolin