Sex, Love, and Dreams: In anticipation of the Free Zone Festival, we spoke with director Dag Johan Haugerud

Courtesy of ​​Dag Johan Haugerud

As someone who started as a writer and still considers that his main profession, Dag Johan Haugerud entered the world of film somewhat by chance. He is a screenwriter and director known for his critically acclaimed novels, feature films, and short films. His feature film I Belong (2012) won the Amanda Award and the Kanon Awards for Best Film, Direction, Screenplay, and Supporting Actress. He had great success with Beware of Children (2019), which, in addition to winning the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film and Best Actor at the Gothenburg Film Festival, also won a record-breaking nine Amanda Awards following its international premiere in Venice, including Best Film, Director, Screenplay, and Best Actor. He also won the Film Critics’ Award, the Solvklumpen Award from Norwegian cinema managers, and the Nordic Council Film Prize. Dag Johan Haugerud has also written several novels published by the publishing house Oktober and has created many critically acclaimed short films. Sex, the first film in the Sex-Love-Dreams trilogy, premiered at the 2024 Berlinale in the Panorama section, where it won three awards. It sounds terrible, but they offered me to make a film. I had no trouble with that. I feel a little embarrassed to say that because I know people who have been struggling for years to make a film. But my producer asked me if I wanted to make a film, and I said yes, as long as I could do it my way. And it just happened. There were some small obstacles, of course. But then it just grew. Now I’ve been making films for over 20 years, but I still consider myself a writer.

The starting point is understanding. Haugerud begins his response to my first question about Sex. How the dialogues are written so gently, and the conversations flow very naturally, with a lot of understanding, even when the characters don’t agree. How important was it for him to create a safe space for both the characters and the audience, and how did he develop this unique approach to addressing such topics? He continues: When we talk about things like sexuality or feelings related to sex and infidelity, the conversation often stalls because it becomes so uncomfortable, that you just want to leave the conversation. That’s why I wanted to write it without stressing conflict and present a scenario were the characters approach each other with patience and love, and a wish to understand. From the very beginning, they need to meet with some kind of love and patience. That’s what it’s about. It doesn’t matter if the other person says something bad. Another specific thing I liked is that the protagonists are middle-aged people, especially heterosexual men. That’s not something you often see in identity-related topics, which are usually found in coming-of-age or teenage narratives, often due to the stigmatization of aging and sexuality in middle-aged people.

Let’s go back to some more technical aspects. Making a trilogy is not a common thing, and it’s a very ambitious directorial move, which has been excellently executed here. Haugerud talks to me about the inspiration and challenges of creating such a project: I wanted to make a bigger project… My previous film was quite long. It was just one film that lasted almost three hours. And then I wanted to make a much shorter film after that. Because I think the short format is quite interesting. But we didn’t get the money to do it. The consultant we were talking to really liked the previous film, and she wanted me to make something truly big, an epic film. So, I thought, okay, I’ll make an even bigger project. I found it very interesting, it gave me the opportunity to develop a theme in a much broader sense, with different perspectives and a higher level of complexity. But it was also a challenge to make three films that should look different and at the same time have similarities in style. It’s like creating a much broader picture—a picture that contains three very different images. It was really fun working with the production designer. And working with the costume designer. We really had a good time. And the same team worked on all three films, so that was really good. Because then you really get to know each other. And the last film was much easier than the first. You can feel that they are somehow connected.

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