Dreams
Norweigian Dag Johan Haugerud wrote ad directed Dreams (Sex Love), the second part, placed in between Sex and Love, a trilogy that deals with the complexity of human relationships, sexuality and social norms.
The film follows Johanne’s (Ella Øverbye) infatuation with her French teacher Johanna (Selome Emnetu), which ignites tensions within her family, as her mother and grandmother confront their own unfulfilled dreams and desires.
Inspitred by Haugerud was inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s 1993-1994 Three Colours trilogy to take this project. He said, “The aim was to make three films that deal with the same topics from different perspectives.” He elaborated, “They should look and feel very different, but give the impression that they are all part of the same conversation.”[7]
The English title was changed from Dreams to Dreams (Sex Love) in order to distinguish it from the Michel Franco’s 2025 film Dreams, which was also in the Berlin competitionthat year.
Johanne (Ella Øverbye), age 17, discovers love vicariously, in the pages of a book, and when that overwhelming feeling toward another person strikes her for the first time, her instinct is to put it down in words.
Her heightened emotional state — an adolescent obsession with a teacher named Johanna (Selome Emnetu) — is a secret shared only with the audience.
Slowly, as this shy teen lets others in, Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud encourages the viewers to question how much of what we see and hear really happened, and how much occurred in Johanne’s head.
A novelist who recognizes cinema as the most powerful medium of our time, Haugerud’s use of color, texture and music is impressive, illuminating Johanne’s personal awakening, while daring to raise provocative questions about how various individuals experience new relationships very differently.
Haugerud’s Oslo Trilogy — three loosely interconnected tales of modern attraction, titled “Sex,” “Love” and “Dreams” — demonstrates how voiceover can enrich a movie’s psychological dimensions.
Dreams is a new kind of queer film, one which reflects a generation that’s boldly unconcerned with conventional societal stereotypes and taboos.
Ella Øverbye as Johanne
Selome Emnetu as Johanna, French teacher
Ane Dahl Torp as Kristin, Johanne’s mother
Anne Marit Jacobsen as Karin, Johanne’s grandmother
Andrine Sæther as Anne
