Keswick Film Club - Reviews - Dreams

Do you remember your teenage crush? That obsession – the object of your desires being the last thing you think about at night and the first thing you think of in the morning?

The award-winning Dreams, from Norway, takes us so perfectly into the world of 16 year-old Johanne, totally infatuated with her teacher, Johanna. The story is told with the help of a voice-over narration giving us an insight into all Johanne's longings and insecurities. When she does strike up a connection with Johanna, through the unlikely medium of learning to knit in Johanna's flat, their mutual affection is apparent but it only makes the young girl dream of their relationship becoming more physical. Or has it already become so?

After Johanna coldly dumps Johanne for another, older woman the pain is obvious. Such is the intensity of Johanne's feelings she writes a secret memoir, detailing the intimate affair, in order to retain the memories. But feelings eventually overwhelm her and the manuscript is first shared with her writer, activist Grandmother and at Gran's insistence, her Mother.

They are horrified. Is it abuse? Should they call the authorities? Did it actually happen or was it a figment of Johanne's fertile imagination? As viewers, we are none the wiser. Mother and Grandmother eventually decide that no harm has come to Johanne and they then focus on the exquisite writing that Johanne has produced. Could the manuscript even be published?

Publishing the memoir involves re-establishing contact with Johanna, who, despite all we have seen earlier, claims to have been unaware of Johanne's feelings towards her. Something doesn't add up.

Dreams is a delightfully ambiguous story. One of those films that you talk about for days afterwards, discussing all the possible motivations of the protagonists and all the permutations of what could have actually occurred.

A worthy addition to the canon of Scandinavian films.