Staff Choose The Premiere: A toast to friendship

Love and friendship are fundamental elements of our human condition. It's simple to conclude that they're among our most basic needs as human beings. They are the ties that bind. They keep us together and make us vulnerable. We are afraid of losing them as deeply as we desire to have them in the initial place. The task for filmmakers to capture this duality in its infinite designs is enormous, but in the rare instances when a work tackles the complexities of human emotions with honesty, it becomes a powerful instrument for understanding the personal experiences of each one of us. This brings us to the current Staff Pick Premiere, Liv Karin Dahlstrom's "Women&Wine," a comedic investigation of self-destructed pride in the face of the loss of a friendship. It was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival (full information: I served as a juror), "Women&Wine" is simultaneously a touching, unsettling, yet a typical portrait of one woman's desperate attempt to hold an ally.

The film opens by introducing Turid (Marit Andreassen) and Signe (Jeanne Bee) who are two females in their mid-life friends, who are planning a surprise birthday party for their common friends Grete (Turid Gunnes). A prank that was fun is turned into a perceived insult which leads to Turid is worried that she's not considered a close friend, pride can get in the way of trust, and hilariously snarky behavior is the result. An emotionally astute and honest representation of human relationships, the film runs through the spectrum of beautiful and silly to awkward and tragic. According to Dahlstrom, who co-wrote the screenplay with Thorkild Shrumpf The same situation took place at a friend's bachelorette party that led them consider the "humor in the insecurity and vulnerability people seek to cover up when trying to protect themselves from socially difficult circumstances. Both of us are incredibly inspired by the human mind, and what happens when our feelings influence us." In the case of Turid and blinded by the notion that Grete doesn't value her friendship, their party is a desperate attempt to show their love and climb the friendship ladder, tripping over herself and other people on the way.

The themes of jealousy and friendship may be familiar to you, or as a basis for a film about harmful female friendships Dahlstrom has a clear intention to avoid melodrama and adopts a naturalistic approach that prioritizes her performers' dynamic and enthralling performances as well as their the range of emotions. Motivated by daily scenes that are tiny moments, Dahlstrom decided that "the camera should follow the actors and the action rather than the other way about." This is why the film seamlessly moves from scene to scene showing the lengths to which we take to protect our friends, and also our pride.