Staff Choose Premiere Toast to friendship

Friendship and love are the common elements of our human experience. It's simple to conclude that they're two of our fundamental needs as human beings. These are the bonds that connect us. They help us stay together, however they also make us at risk. They make us be afraid of losing them just as we want them in the initial place. The job of filmmakers is to convey this duality through its various forms. It's an overwhelming one, but in the rare instances where a film tackles the complexities of our emotions in a way which is authentic as well as revealing, it may become a powerful tool to understand our personal experiences. That brings us to the current Staff Pick Premiere: Liv Karin Dahlstrom's "Women&Wine," a comedic exploration of self-destructed pride when it confronts a fading friendship. It was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival (full details: I served on the jury), "Women&Wine" is simultaneously a touching, awkward, and ultimately the same story of a woman's desperate struggle to hold on to her friend.

The film starts by showing Turid (Marit Andreassen) and Signe (Jeanne Bee) which are females in their mid-life friends, who are planning an extravagant birthday celebration to their best friend Grete (Turid Gunnes). After a playful prank becomes a snub which leads to Turid being worried about never considered to be one of their friends. The confidence of a person can get in way of trust, and then funny, cringeworthy behaviour can ensue. The film is a sensitive and authentic portrayal of human relations The movie covers a range of emotions from beautiful and funny to tragic and snarky. According to Dahlstrom, who co-wrote the script with Thorkild Schröpf, a similar incident occurred during a friend's bachelorette party that caused them to think about the "humor of vulnerable and vulnerability that individuals are trying to conceal in order to shield their self-esteem in stressful social environments. Both of us are inspired by the human mind and the consequences that occur when we let our emotions to rule the day." For Turid the woman who is in a state of confusion because she believes that Grete does not value their friendship, the occasion turns into a desperate effort to establish their relationship and climb the friendship ladder through stumbling onto herself and others while trying to prove their friendship.

Although the subject matter of jealousy and friendship might seem familiar, or maybe a good recipe for a film that deals with unhealthy female friendships, Dahlstrom has a clear intention to avoid melodrama and employs a style that's organic and concentrates on the dynamic performance of her actors and emotional range. Inspired by everyday events of seemingly small moments, Dahlstrom decided that "the camera needs to follow the performers and their movements and not just the opposite approach." This is the result: an film that flows effortlessly between scenes, revealing the lengths we'll take to protect our friends, and our pride.

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