Showing @ Cineworld, Edinburgh, Mon 24 and Tue 25 Jun

Kaspar Munk / Denmark / 2012 / 82 min

Adolescence is a time of endlessly shifting alliances, thoughtless cruelty and of course raging hormones. But Danish teenager Laura (excellent portrayed by Julie Brochorst Andersen) has an even worse than usual case. Laura has loving parents, a comfortable home life, and a best friend she has known all of her life (Emilie Kruse as Christine). She may or may not also have a crush on the local outcast, Jonas (Benjamin Wandschneider). But teen angst is a powder keg indeed, and the arrival of worldly and uninhibited new girl Maria (Frederikke Dahl Hansen) proves to be a dangerous spark. Laura and Maria’s blossoming friendship leads to several flavours of heartbreak and to the emergence of quite a different girl to the seemingly delicate creature Laura appears to be when the audience first meet her.

You & Me Forever is Kaspar Munk’s second feature film: both have centred on teenagers and both have received major awards from the Danish film industry. The young cast here were provided with an outline and encouraged to improvise their reactions, and the strategy pays off handsomely here. The three leads all turn in thoroughly believable, nuanced performances. Their honesty and Munk’s direction make for a film that is often uncomfortable viewing in the accuracy of its depiction of adolescent emotion.

Showing as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2013