It’s not easy being a teenager in a small town. For 15-year-old Alma, things are about to get incredibly difficult. She is, in her own words, horny, using a phone sex line and constantly daydreaming of sexual encounters, mostly focused on her classmate Artur. But when he denies making a very forward move on her, Alma finds herself cast out and still in constant need of release.
The film sets out its sexually frank stall early on (we’re introduced to Alma as she masturbates on the floor to the “Wild Wet Dreams” sex line and we are shown the member that causes so much trouble) but there’s a real sweetness at work here too. Writer/director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen (adapting Olaug Nilssen’s novel) has found exactly the right contrast between the naiveté of teen romance and the uncomfortable reality of Alma’s situation.
During the first twenty minutes or so there is often confusion as to whether Alma is dreaming or whether the scene is actually happening; for a while there seems to be some question as to whether or not the event even occurred. While the characters in the film may condemn Alma for her insatiability, at no point does the film. It’s a lethal cocktail of adolescence, boredom and finally loneliness after being shunned for the “dick-poking incident” that takes her towards rock bottom until finally she finds herself fantasising about her manager at the shop she works at.
Jacobsen constructs a well-realised world for Alma to move in with some excellent supporting characters. Her best friend Sara (Malin Bjørhovde) decides to renounce love in order to better focus on getting out of town and writes letters about her feelings to death row inmates. Alma’s mother (Henriette Steenstrup) is at a loss for what to do about her daughter when she’s confronted with the reality of the sound of her masturbating through the walls, not to mention the bill for the “Service line.”
And at the centre is a pitch-perfect performance from Helene Bergsholm as Alma. As the film finds the right pitch between hilarious reality and sweet romanticism, so does Bergsholm, who gives an incredibly assured, funny, and touching portrayal of a teenager who finds herself alone, confused and frustrated, an all-too rare female protagonist for the sexual awakening subgenre.
Turn Me On, Dammit! is excellent; a sweet but raw comic drama that’s shockingly funny but also surprisingly tender.
Turn Me On, Dammit! shows at the East End Film Festival on 08 July.
Jonathan has awarded Turn Me on, Dammit! four torches of truth
