A confused religious girl tries to deny her feelings for a female friend who's in love with her. This causes her suppressed subconsciously-controlled psychokinetic powers to reemerge with devastating results.
Having just enrolled at a university in Oslo against her stern parents' will, the sheltered Biology freshman and devout Christian, Thelma, leaves for the first time the isolated Norwegian countryside, to start a new life away from home. Tangibly lonely, a casual conversation and an unexpected friendship in the face of the beautiful fellow student, Anja, will broaden Thelma's hazy horizons; however, as the glacially alluring misfit wrestles with an onslaught of novel feelings, an unprecedented psychosomatic manifestation of repressed emotions takes over. A mystery cloaks soft-spoken Thelma's past, and the more she struggles to renounce her nebulous desire, the more violent is her quivering awakening. But can Thelma find a denied truth behind a stinging temptation?Written by
Nick Riganas
The song that turned on itself in Anja's room is called 'Mountaineers' by Susanne Sundfør feat. John Grant. See more »
Goofs
The first time Thelma goes on Facebook on her computer, everything is in English. In all subsequent social media on portable devices/phones, the text is in her native language. See more »
Quotes
Trond:
A little knowledge doesn't make us better than others.
See more »
Lights flicker, the wind rises and animals behave strangely when Thelma becomes agitated. She is capable of mysterious and ethereal powers, and more than she knows because her manipulative and fundamentalist parents keep such things under wraps in home-school. As Thelma heads to college in Oslo and stops taking medications, not only do her parents lose control, she loses control of herself. Psychogenic seizures rack her body. Passions and anxieties multiply along with her abilities. This is when Anja, Thelma's close friend, does something extremely upsetting for Thelma. The next day when Anja can't be found, Thelma has a sickening feeling she had something to do with it. She searches for answers to the secrets and powers that beguile and haunt her.
This thrilling, deep, complex and sensual film explores a whole realm of different theories and possibilities. I was surprised and delighted by its twists and turns. It crosses borders between reality and fantasy, and light and darkness, and explores the good and bad in human nature. The actors are amazing, especially Eili Harboe as Thelma and Kaya Wilkins as Anja. It is fantastic to discover that the roots of psychogenic disorders go back as far as Joan of Arc. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival.
44 of 69 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful to you?
| Report this
Lights flicker, the wind rises and animals behave strangely when Thelma becomes agitated. She is capable of mysterious and ethereal powers, and more than she knows because her manipulative and fundamentalist parents keep such things under wraps in home-school. As Thelma heads to college in Oslo and stops taking medications, not only do her parents lose control, she loses control of herself. Psychogenic seizures rack her body. Passions and anxieties multiply along with her abilities. This is when Anja, Thelma's close friend, does something extremely upsetting for Thelma. The next day when Anja can't be found, Thelma has a sickening feeling she had something to do with it. She searches for answers to the secrets and powers that beguile and haunt her.
This thrilling, deep, complex and sensual film explores a whole realm of different theories and possibilities. I was surprised and delighted by its twists and turns. It crosses borders between reality and fantasy, and light and darkness, and explores the good and bad in human nature. The actors are amazing, especially Eili Harboe as Thelma and Kaya Wilkins as Anja. It is fantastic to discover that the roots of psychogenic disorders go back as far as Joan of Arc. Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival.