Screening

About Turn Me On, Dammit!

Year Released:

2012

Genres:

Comedy, Drama

Metadata:

Directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen

TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! tells a story that is rarely if ever explored in films: the unbridled sexual appetite of a teenage girl. Certainly this subject has never been approached in such a candid and wryly comic way.

15-year-old Alma (Helene Bergsholm) is consumed by her out-of-control hormones and fantasies that range from sweetly romantic images of Artur, the boyfriend she yearns for, to down-and-dirty daydreams about practically everybody she lays eyes on. Alma and her best friend Sara (Malin Bjørhovde) live in an insufferably boring little town in the hinterlands of Norway called Skoddeheimen, a place they loathe.

Throughout, the complexities of Alma’s burgeoning sexuality and loneliness are compassionately rendered by director Jannicke Systad Jacobsen with a frankness that always rings true, as does Helene Bergsholm’s quietly moving performance as Alma.

TURN ME ON, DAMMIT! has been recognized around the world as a film that strikes a chord with young people, but it has also been received appreciatively by those who are old enough to remember that adolescence is a survivable malady. The film signals the arrival of Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, an award-winning documentary filmmaker whose previous movies exhibit the same brand of humanism, sweetness, and offbeat humor so much on display in this film.

35mm presentation, Norwegian language with English subtitles. The film is not rated, but contains some graphic nudity and sexual situations.