Relationships between teachers and students can at times be subject to romantic fantasies, projections, even unwanted intimacies. In the third of Norwegian novelist and filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s wry, light, and smart Oslo trilogy, “Dreams” (the other two “Sex” and “Love”), centers on the infatuation of a 17-year-old Johanne (Ella Øverbye) for her young, pretty, charismatic high school teacher, Johanna (Selome Emnetu).
Johanne feels that her life lacks solidity and she is merely drifting. The arrival of the teacher gives her someone to obsess about—in her mind, the intimate connection she is seeking. She believes the teacher speaks more personally to her than the other students. And Johanne begins to dream about her and, without an invitation, tearfully visits her apartment for consolation. She also develops a sexual desire for the teacher, which is never requited or in any way expressed, except in her writing, where she writes with passion about the teacher’s body.
Johanne’s other prime relationships are with her single mother Kristin (Ane Dahl Torp) and poet grandmother Karin (Anne Marit Jacobsen), both of whom know nothing about her crush (Johanne lies to them when she visits her teacher), until she hands a finished manuscript about her feelings and life to her grandmother. Johanne may be slightly naïve and extremely vulnerable, but she is in many ways sophisticated, self-aware, and writes with some flair—though her confessional was initially only meant for herself, not publication. Her mother and grandmother have different responses to the manuscript. They are both liberal, feminist-leaning, and open-minded, but Karin discovers that Johanne exhibits more passion and talent than she has as a writer. Compared to her bolder granddaughter, she feels timid and given to shying away from emotional risks. A stunned Kristin, who blindly never noticed what Johanne was going through, reacts with anger about what she thinks is the teacher’s abuse of her daughter and wants to contact the school. But she soon comes to respect what she sees as an achievement and pushes for the manuscript’s publication.
The film is shot in a wintery Oslo, giving us some feeling for the city. There is also a gratuitous dream sequence, of people slowly clambering up a golden ladder towards heaven. However, the film is mostly literate talk between characters and Johanne’s first-person voiceover (the lyrical text of her book) which runs through the film. Dreams never make clear what is fantasy and what is reality since we see the world mainly through Johanne’s eyes. But we learn that the teacher, who has a matronly woman friend (whom she marries), asks Johanna to stop visiting.
The character of the supposedly empathetic teacher could have been more defined since she seems to barely perceive the obsessiveness and passion of Johanne’s visits but then becomes frightened her mother may press charges, knowing the visits were unacceptable. A year later, Johanne’s book has been published to at least one good review, and she has moved on to a boyfriend. But she remains confused and without clear direction. There is a strong scene at the film’s conclusion with a wise, low-keyed therapist, who offers no facile solutions for Johanne. Haugerud’s film successfully maintains a balance between seriousness and wry understatement. It has moved me to see the first two parts of the trilogy.
“Dreams” plays at the Film Forum in New York City through October 9.
