Turn Me On, Goddammit

Colour, 35 mm
Norway, 2011, 75 min
EP – European premiere
Section: Variety’s Ten Euro Directors to Watch

Synopsis

A frank portrayal of adolescent eroticism, female division, which seldom gets portrayed onscreen at all, much less at the affectionately candid level explored here, the film is set in a less-than-vibrant burg of western Norway that everyone seems to hate; Alma and her pal Sara ritually flip off the sign that bears its name, Skoddeheimen, each time their school bus passes it. Turn Me On, Goddammit concerns itself with a number of the usual teen-movie tropes, including the loyalty of best friends, the cruelty of adolescence and the torture inflicted on the young by their parents. The paramount issue, however, is Alma’s burgeoning lust. Helmer Jannicke Systad Jacobsen interweaves Alma’s fantasies, which involve just about anyone, with her day-to-day routine around the curiously named Skoddeheimen and her floundering flirtations.

About the director

Jannicke Systad Jacobsen (b. 1975, Norway), writer and director, studied film directing with a focus on documentaries at FAMU, the Czech Republic’s national film school, and at the London International Film School. She has also studied Theatre Science and Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Her documentaries, including The Clown Children (2005) and Scenes from a Friendship (2009), are notable for their sense of humor. Boasting a sympathetically hormonal heroine, her first fiction feature, the teen dramedy, Turn Me On, Goddammit (2011), scored Best Screenplay honors in the World Narrative Competition at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival and inspired applause from hard-nosed buyers during a Cannes market screening.