Known to the English-speaking world as 'Turn Me On, Dammit!', this comedy-drama blend from Norway focuses on a sexually frustrated teenage girl who feels repressed by her outskirts town. She daydreams on a regular basis, often losing herself in fantasies (including a lesbian love scene with her best friend's sister!) so when a boy who she fancies "pokes" her with his manhood and then later denies it, the question arises of whether or she imagined it all. Promising all this might sound, the film does not really play around with the ambiguity of whether or not the poke actually occurred. She is always convinced that it did happen (even if we as viewers have our doubts) and the film instead focuses her ostracism at school as a result of the dispute over whether she was poked. Add in some nosy neighbours and the film has quite a bit to offer in terms of showing how suffocating a small town environment is, especially when everyone knows you and you have a reputation. Intelligent as this may be though, it is rather tame for a movie that opens with a daring scene in which the "almost sixteen" year old protagonist's dog watches with interest as she pleasures herself during phone sex. This is, in fact, the film's chief pitfall in a way as it delivers its best scene way too early in the piece. That said, the film is frequently funny and it consistently works as a comedy even if it is lightweight on explicit content and raunchiness. Several of her fantasies (especially those involving her boss) are laugh-out-loud funny and the film ends on a pitch perfect comical note. Great final line.

This film is definitely quite interesting. It's not appropriate as a family film, but I think the title suggests that. Much of the film carries a sexual context to it, but unlike many films and TV programmes, it's not over-the-top or unnecessary, but fits the plot appropriately.The film manages to take one very strange, small, and extremely socially inappropriate action from one character and make an entire plot out of it. This takes a lot of creativity and I don't think I've seen that done as well as in this film. With just a few words about this film, I usually can convey enough about the entire plot to get someone interested in it.The film also manages to present well the negative feelings some people get when they've lived in a small village for a long time. From the beginning of the film, the characters express a form of hatred for their village, which is definitely a feeling many villagers have.Although I wouldn't say the film is one of the best I've watched, it manages to be mentioned by me a lot as "the weirdest film I've ever seen." It's definitely worth watching, especially if you're interested in something unconventional.

I recently saw this at the 2012 Palm Springs International Film Festival. This is a low budget, quirky, coming-of-age Norwegian comedy from a writer/director (Jannicke Systad Jabobsen), known for making shorts and documentaries, who is making her feature film debut using mostly untrained actors and the results are hilarious and charming. Alma (Helen Bergsholm) is a 15 year old living in a small rural Norwegian town called "Skaddeheimen" who has discovered self-gratification and phone sex. She, like her friends, long to leave the town they live in and go to a big city like Oslo as one of her friends older sister Maria (Julia Bach-Wiig) has. Alma has a crush on Artur (Matais Myren) but when he makes an offensive move toward her outdoors at a community dance, she flees inside to describe it to her best friends Saralou (Malin Bjørhoude) and Ingrid (Beate Støfring). They don't believe her story, and Artur of course denies it, so she becomes ostracized by the whole school and loses all her friends. Her mother (Henriette Steenstrup) is beside herself with Alma's fascination with sex but devises ways to put up with it. Director Jacobsen co-wrote the very funny script along with Olaug Nilssen adapted from Nilssen's novel. Excellent soundtrack music from Ginge Anvk, nicely edited by Zaklina Stojcevska with beautiful cinematography from Marianne Bakke this film comes together and delivers a smart and witty comedy. The casting is perfect and Bergsholm, who was 17 when this was filmed, playing the 15 year old lead is outstanding in her debut acting performance. She is both poised and comedic and pulls off her role with genuine charm and skill. I'll look for a future for her and for director Jacobsen. I would highly recommend this film and give it my highest rating of 10 out of 10.

I don't know what to say about Minnie Long's comment that Helene Bergsholm hadn't told her parents about the scenes she plays in this film. She obviously thinks she heard it. As the US publicist, let me tell you what happened in fact: when Helene was offered the role of Alma, director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen met with her and her parents in a hotel to have them read over the entire script, and, as Bergsholm was underage at the time, to give their consent. As anybody who has worked on a film knows, the film could never have been released without a signed document from the parents. It is very serious business what you depict sexually with minors on screen. And in particular, somebody like Helene, who is not a professional actor.