There were a few unique gems among the films I got to translate for AleKino! and one that stands out (the only one I actually made a copy of) is a Norwegian short Oh, My God!. It's a hilarious memory flashback to childhood in the early 80s in Norway when obsession with sex and freer eroticism ran high and seduced preadolescent girls into a bizarre initiation ritual. Fascinated by nude magazines sporting snapshots of women in erotic poses and full of descriptions of ecstasy, a group of girlfriends, 12-year-old or so, are led by Charlene, a blond ringleader, into believing they can get an guaranteed orgasm if they follow her odd recipe that includes a tablespoon and a cup of warm water. At a secret sex convention in Charlene's pink-dominated room, one by one, they take the orgasm set, step into a wardrobe and within seconds start yelling in excitement, pretending to come. Under Charlene's terror, no participant dares call the bluff and the awkward session goes on until the main protagonist (and the narrator), at first sheepishly, then with outstanding cunning, decides to shock her girlfriends by outperforming them in ecstasy shrieks and seizures. She carries it out so convincingly that other girls, including the cheeky, fake Charlene, are stunned into doubting whether she possibly might have had a true orgasm, which instantly elevates her to the status of a teenage hero.
Based on a short story by Anna Bache-Wiig, it develops seemlessy with a narrator voice-over, which I adore, guiding a viewer through teenage vulnerabilities, perceptions and misperceptions with delicious irony and distance grown-ups can afford when looking back at the eventful, though compeletly illogical, times of early adolescence. For me, the film felt as if I'd just heard a friend of mine retelling me, over beer, another embarrassing memory of her as a 12-year-old and me bursting in laughter at the punchline, which I actually did.
Three other shorts that fell into my hands were OK, but it was much harder for me to identify with their content, style or subject matter. The South-Korean Rubout, telling a distressing story of the last phone call between a manager trapped in a train that is about to fall from a bridge and his wife, has even won a prize at the festival, but still failed to move me. So did the Norwegian Deconstruction workers, a meaning-of-life dialogue between a young builder and his older colleague at the construction site who conclude that it's best to accept life and its limitations as they are, and the Mexican Niño de mis ojos (The apple of my eyes), which I nonetheless enjoyed as an exercise in my budding Spanish.
¿Que haces? = Co robisz?
¿Necessito ajuda? = Potrzebujesz pomocy?
La Bamba by Los Lobos is a classic whose lyrics are often used in Spanish classes.
Here is what a meringue means in English.
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