Dreams (2024)

Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams is a study of desire seen through a teenager’s mind, and for me it is his most graceful work yet. The story follows a 17-year-old whose crush on her new teacher turns into a memoir that her family ends up reading, and that act sparks real conversations about love, feminism and gender. Haugerud weaves those ideas into the drama so lightly that they never feel like a lecture, and the hazy, in-between spaces he builds give the film a dreamlike quality that suits its subject well.

The craft is just as impressive. Cecilie Semec’s cinematography, along with the production and costume design, gives the movie a tactile, slightly romanticized warmth, especially in the recurring wool and knitwear. Ella Overbye carries the voiceover with ease and lets her character’s feelings show through posture and gesture, and you can watch her grow in confidence as the film goes on. The recurring staircase is a quiet, effective motif, a reminder of how the challenges of youth and the longings they carry follow us into adulthood.