Over the course of one day, three men suffer humiliation or emasculation from women, reacting with self-imposed alienation and increasingly aggressive behaviour. Petter, a renowned filmmaker now denied funding for his latest film, struggles not to lose face at a dinner party when he rants about the encroaching power of feminism. Eirik, unemployed but fully entitled, sees the world as conspiring to bring him down, leaving him contemptuously pontificating to female strangers in a bar, or staring down women on transit to feel powerful. Harald, an 11 year-old corrected by his teacher and lectured by his mother, angrily withdraws into a private world.

As her feature debut, Him showcases Guro Bruusgaard’s eye for the liminal space between comedy and tragedy. Empathetic insights into the vulnerable inner lives of Petter, Eirik, and Harald are punctuated by provocative moments of humour as the film offers a thoughtful, lively conversation about masculinity in society.

“By turns incisive and discomfortingly droll, this concise, sharply observed character study keeps its central characters in focus while placing them in the context of a wider contemporary debate about gender.“—Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily

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