Staff Choose The Premiere A toast to friendship

Friendship and love are the universal elements of the human experience, and it's easy to say that they're two of our most basic needs as people. These are the bonds that bind. They keep us together, while simultaneously making us fragile. They make us fear losing them as much as we would like to have them in the first place. Filmmakers' task is to capture this duality in all its countless shapes is immense, but in rare cases where a film tackles the fragility of human emotion in a way that is honest, it can become an effective instrument to understand the personal experiences of each one of us. This brings us to the current Staff Pick Premiere, Liv Karin Dahlstrom's "Women&Wine," a comedic examination of pride that is wounded as it confronts an eroding friendship. It was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival (full disclosure: I was part of the jury), "Women&Wine" is at once a charming, unsettling, yet a familiar portrait of one woman's desperate struggle to hold the friendship of her best friend.

The film opens the film with Turid (Marit Andreassen) and Signe (Jeanne Bee) Two middle-aged female friends, who are planning a surprise birthday party to their mutual friend Grete (Turid Gunnes). A prank that was fun turns into a perceived slight that leaves Turid worries that she's no longer thought of as a friend. jealousy can get in the way of confidence and a hilariously cringeworthy act is the result. A sensitive and honest depiction of human friendships, the film runs through the spectrum of beautiful as well as silly, to awkward and heartbreaking. According to Dahlstrom who wrote the script with Thorkild Schrumpf The same situation took place at a friend's bachelorette party and led them to consider the "humor in the insecurity and vulnerability that people attempt to hide when they protect themselves from socially difficult situations. We are both very inspired by our human nature and the consequences that occur when we allow our emotions to override our rational thinking." In the case of Turid and deluded by the idea that Grete no longer values their friendship, the event becomes a last ditch effort to establish their relationship and climb the friendship ladder by tripping on herself and other guests in the process.

While the themes of jealousy and friendship might seem familiar, or even seem like the perfect recipe for a film that deals with unhealthy female friendships, Dahlstrom deliberately eschews melodrama for a naturalistic approach that prioritizes her actor's dynamic performances and the range of emotions. Motivated by daily scenes that are tiny moments, Dahlstrom decided that "the camera should follow the actors and their actions and not vice versa around." In the end the film seamlessly moves from scene to scene showing the lengths to which we take to protect our friends, and also our joy.