Thelma - Joachim Trier (2017)

As young adults or teenagers, when we encounter our first loves, it changes every part of us irrevocably. In some of us, the changes are  subtle. In others, however, the transformation slaps us in the face and recreates us into something we never would have believed.

The girls Joachim Trier presents us with in "Thelma" are quiet to start with, particularly Thelma (Eili Harboe). She's a young college student, starting life out on her own. Sort of. She's still tied to her religious yet demoralizing parents.

Thelma's father (Henrik Rafaelsen) is a grand manipulator. Whenever he tries to teach her a moral lesson, it always ends the same: Thelma lowers her head and starts to weep. These speeches spring up randomly in most of their conversations and they devastate Thelma.

Her mother (Ellen Dorrit Petersen) is a quiet, passive-aggressive woman who doesn't talk very much, but is clearly softly bullying the girl.

Thelma plows through, studying and going to classes. She hasn't really made any friends yet. A girl, Anja (Kaya Wilkins) sits with her one day while she's studying. 

Thelma's attraction to this girl kicks in right away. She falls to the floor having a non-epileptic seizure. She has no history of epilepticy or seizures of any kind. The doctors run tests, but don't find anything, so clearly, something else triggered the seizure. Like seeing her first love for the very first time. Put that together with Thelma realizing in a second that she likes girls it's no wonder why she reacted so strongly.

Thelma and Anja start to get closer as Thelma's desire for Anja rises. At the same time, Thelma's religious upbringing harmfully holds her back. At night, she kneels with her head against the wall and pleads with God to take away these sinful thoughts and urges. When her father finds about her sexual identity, he forces her to kneel with her head against the wall, pleading with God to remove these new, deviant desires. Thelma is profoundly lost.

The bulk of the film is about Thelma's choice. Does she bend to the so-called morality of her upbringing? Or is she going to hunt down the girl she loves dearly so they call start their relationship?

They clearly have a pure love between them. The passion that grows between them reminded me of Abdellatif Kechiche's deeply emotional "Blue is the Warmest Color."

Therein lies the trauma millions of young gay men and women experience. They can't let themselves love because something in their heads insists that who they are is wrong. So much unhappiness comes from love deprivation. Above everything in this world, love is what we need the most. And everyone deserves to have it.

"Thelma" looks at this problem without condemnation, for neither Thelma or her parents. Trier doesn't condescend to mocking her upbringing, her beliefs or her family, even when they're at their worst. That kind of kindness he shows to all of his characters carries this film and raises it up among others that explore this theme.

So yes, you should seek out "Thelma." Not just if you're a sucker for romance but if you love film or storytelling. This film is far too thoughtful to peg it into a genre.

Let  me say it as strongly as possible. "Thelma" is one of the great films of 2017.