A chimney sweep confesses to having sex with a male customer much to the surprise of his colleague and wife. Dag Johan Haugerud’s candid and refreshing comic drama takes a candid and refreshing look at modern gender roles.
Sex offers a thought-provoking reflection on identity, sexuality and freedom sparked by a simple conversation between two male colleagues.
Screened as part of 2024
Sex 2024
There has hardly been any investigation on contemporary male identity and sexuality as candid, insightful and hilarious as Norwegian auteur Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex. After winning all major laurels in Nordic cinema with his impressive fresco Beware of Children (2019), the acclaimed director and author embarks on an Oslo-set trilogy simply called Sex Dreams Love.
The first instalment opens on one of the most tantalising and unexpected preludes in recent cinema. Two chimney sweeps frankly open up to each other on a coffee break in their office: the first reveals that he dreamt of being intensely looked at by none other than David Bowie, who was inspecting him as if he was a woman; the other confesses that he recently accepted the sexual advances of a male customer who asked him to have sex with him. But both men are “straight” and married to women. Here, the deft tone of the film and Haugerud’s rules of the game are immediately set.
A fervent admirer of Eric Rohmer’s thickly scripted skirmishes of love and ethics, the Norwegian writer-director infuses irony, depth and compassion in each of his elegantly composed tableaux depicting how the two men cope with the turmoil these experiences bring to their relationships with their partners and family, but most of all with themselves. Featuring some of the brightest and funniest dialogues of 2024, Sex is a real eye-opener. — Paolo Bertolin