Kjærlighet / Love

Dag Johan Haugerud: Kjærlighet / Love (NO 2024). Snekkeren (Morten Svartveit),  Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig) and Heidi (Marte Engebrigtsen) on the ferry.

Norway © 2024 Motlys AS.

Director: Dag Johan Haugerud

Starring: Andrea Bræin Hovig, Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen, Marte Engebrigtsen,

Composer: Peder Kjellsby.

Language: Norwegian

120 min

    Distributor: Norwegian Film Institute, English subtitles by Nicolai Herzog.

    Love & Anarchy 38th Helsinki International Film Festival (HIFF)

    Viewed at Kinopalatsi 2, Helsinki, Fri 26.9.2025 at 15.45–17.45 

SEX DREAMS LOVE

Sex, 17 Feb 2024 Berlin International Film Festival

Drømmer, 23 Sep 2024 Oslo, 19 Feb 2025 Berlin International Film Festival

Kjærlighet, 6 Sep 2024 Venice Film Festival

In some posters the three films are called the Oslo Trilogy, but the official Oslo Trilogy is by Joachim Trier: Reprise (2006), Oslo, 31. august (2011) and Verdens verste menneske (2021). Also three films by Erik Poppe have been called an Oslo Trilogy: Schpaaa (1998), Hawaii, Oslo (2004) and De usynlige (2008).

Sanni Myllyaho (HIFF 2025): "Give way, Paris – Oslo is now the city of love. The summer night is full of possibilities, as strangers seek eye contact with each other on a ferry in the Oslo archipelago. In Dag Johan Haugerud’s film Love, Marianne, a doctor specialised in urology, and her nurse co-worker, Tor, are both exploring what it’s like to have your own kind of love life."

"Marianne is fully content with her life as a self-reliant woman, when her friend sets her up with a geologist, with whom sparks suddenly start flying. However, at their age everyone has their baggage. The geologist has his children, and as a neighbour his ex-wife, who enjoys wine a little too much. Marianne isn’t sure whether she wants to be a part of any of it. Tor, for one, only likes casual sex, until caring and affection start creeping into one of his encounters."

"Love is the second part of Haugerud’s Oslo trilogy, consisting of independent films (or third part, depending on Haugerud’s mood during the interview). Where the first part, Sex (R&A 2024 and 2025), showcases manhood and sexuality, Love fantasises what loving and wanting can look like at an older age, if you don’t let society’s expectations restrain you."

"Haugerud’s films (I Belong, R&A 2013; Beware of Children, R&A 2020) examine relationships cleverly and without judgement, and are always an occasion for the fans of mild-mannered dramas. Love is no exception." Sanni Myllyaho (translated by Vilja Hynynen)

"Väisty Pariisi, Oslo on nyt rakkauden pääkaupunki. Kesäyö on täynnä mahdollisuuksia, kun Oslon saariston yhteyslautalla haetaan katsekontaktia vieraiden ihmisten kanssa. Urologian erikoislääkäri Marianne ja tämän työpari, sairaanhoitaja Tor tutkivat kumpikin tahoillaan, minkälaista on elää omannäköistä rakkauselämää Dag Johan Haugerudin elokuvassa Love."

"Marianne on täysin tyytyväinen elämäänsä itsellisenä naisena, kunnes ystävän järjestämällä tapaamisella geologin kanssa yllättäen kipinöi. Tässä iässä itse kullakin on kuitenkin painolastinsa. Geologilla on lapset ja naapurina ex-vaimo, jolle viini maistuu vähän liian hyvin, eikä Marianne ole varma, haluaako hän mitään osaa heistä. Tor taas vannoo irtoseksin nimeen, kunnes erääseen kohtaamiseen alkaa sekoittua huolenpitoa ja välittämistä."

"Love on Haugerudin itsenäisistä elokuvista koostuvan Oslo-trilogian toinen osa (tai kolmas riippuen siitä, millä tuulella Haugerud on haastattelua antaessaan). Siinä missä ensimmäinen osa Sex (R&A 2024 & 2025) käsittelee mieheyttä ja seksuaalisuutta, Love fantasioi, mitä rakastaminen ja haluaminen voivat olla varttuneemmalla iällä, jos yhteiskunnan odotusten ei anna rajoittaa."

"Haugerudin (I Belong, R&A 2013; Lapset, R&A 2020) ihmissuhteita älykkäästi ja tuomitsematta tarkkailevat elokuvat ovat aina tapaus vähäeleisten draamojen ystäville, eikä Love ole tässä poikkeus." Sanni Myllyaho

AA: The main action in the films in Dag Johan Haugerud's trilogy is conversation, but each has also great imagery. In Sex the protagonists are chimney sweeps and thus we have the rooftops, the sky and the horizon. In Dreams, there is the contrast between urban Oslo architecture and the magic of the forest. In Love, the most memorable visual motif is the ferry. A main character is a geologist, and we get a discourse on Oslo geology. The rock solid foundation of the city and the Atlantic seafront are the key elements of the vision.

Éric Rohmer was asked the question why people talk so much in his movies, and his answer was simply that the people whom he knows love to talk, so what would be more natural than to have a lot of dialogue. Haugerud's films are based on the same conviction. When people start to talk they reveal more of themselves than they may realize, and in dialogue they may get insights which might otherwise have remained unexplored.

Love is the best and most profound movie in Haugerud's trilogy. Sex was about the fluidity of orientation: even if you are heterosexual does not mean that you cannot feel the other way. Dreams was about the awakening of young sexuality, still groping in the darkness. It was also about the zone of transgression and the professional limits of abstinence of the grown-up. 

Love is about the life of unattached grown-ups in the world of Tinder and Grindr. It also discusses the professional's duty of avoiding transgression, this time with a patient. The urologist Marianne's life as a child of divorce may explain her unwillingness to become attached. She hesitates to have a relationship with a father of small children. She acts out of character and has a one night stand with a casual acquaintance. Her colleague, the gay nurse Tor has been a swinger all his life, but he starts a serious non-sexual affair with a patient, Bjørn, whose cancerous prostate has been operated.

Through Tor, Marianne learns about male trouble related to the prostate: it is essential in penetrative gay sex. To lose it is a double loss. Through Bjørn we learn about gay history. Just when Bjørn came out in 1988, news about AIDS became widespread. Now, just as he has lost his prostate, there are news about a new HIV vaccine.

A touch of humor emerges from the reactions of Marianne's best friend Heidi, who in the beginning seems like a spirit of liberation in her introduction to Oslo as a city of love. She acts as the matchmaker between Marianne and the geologist Ole Harald and is shocked to learn that Marianne distances herself from him and instead enjoys a one night stand with Snekkeren, the carpenter.

It is about free love and committed love. Love is serious business, and most serious when children are involved.