Reykjavík Grapevine - jan. 2021, Blaðsíða 22

Remember That
Girl Who Cried,
Left The Party And
Moved To Berlin?
‘Norms’ is a web series about her
Words: Hannah Jane Cohen
Photos: Provided by Lost Shoe Collective
Album
‘Norms’ is available to watch until
Jan. 17th on rvkfemfilmfest.is.
Follow Norms on Facebook and
@norms.webseries on Instagram for
updates on release schedules.
“This is a story about a dildo.”
And so begins the trailer for
‘Norms’, a new web series by the
Lost Shoe Collective that pre-
miered on January 14th at the
Reykjavík Feminist Film Festival.
The series documents the life of
Sara, a queer Icelandic woman
who, in the midst of an impul-
sive, self-destructive breakdown,
escapes Reykjavík for the noise of
Berlin, or as it’s called, the “city of
lost souls.”
It’s a tale as old as time: woman
leaves her comfortable life to find
herself in the fringes of society.
That said, Lost Shoe Collective
have put their own spin on this
classic by centering their story
around an openly queer protago-
nist, which is all part of their vi-
sion of telling stories that aren’t
told and telling them in a funny,
relatable, realistic manner. Hence,
the dildo.
Queer reality
“I feel that the story is a represen-
tation of how we as queer people
are just that—people, regular
people that live regular lives, full
of joyful, dramatic and funny mo-
ments,” writer Sólveig Johnsen
explains in a COVID-safe virtual
interview. Just like Sara, she iden-
tifies as a queer woman. “Our
stories aren’t only about coming
out, facing prejudices and so on,
sometimes we are insecure in our
life’s purpose or cheating on our
spouse, just like anyone else of any
sexual orientation or identity.”
The group, therefore, sought
to portray the mundane, everyday
struggles of
Sara’s life
and in do-
ing so pro-
vide a more
n u a n c e d
t a k e o n
the queer
female ex-
p e r i e n c e .
A nd a s a
woman-led collective with a high
percentage of queer members, this
was certainly their story to tell.
“It was important to us from
the beginning that Sara was some-
one everyone could see themselves
in, in a way, but that she would be
a flawed person who makes mis-
takes. [She] doesn’t always do the
right thing—rarely even—but she
tries,” director Júlía Margrét Ein-
arsdóttir says. “Sara is just like so
many European young adults. She
has everything in a way: a well-
paid job, a great group of friends
and a girlfriend who cares for her…
[But] Sara starts realising that
there’s something missing in the
relationship that causes an empty
space within herself. She cheats on
her girlfriend with someone who
is exciting and excited about a part
of her that Sara has been hiding
from the world and herself.”
“In the end it’s not the world
she needs to face, but her own de-
mons, passions and struggles to
find happiness,” Júlía continues.
“Sara is clumsy, selfish, funny and
adorable and I love her.”
No explosions here
Júlía approached the project with
a concrete basis in realism, which
was necessary to highlight the
internal arc of the characters.
“Nothing explodes, there are no
dinosaurs, we’re not telling a story
that’s never been told, no monkey-
business,” she explains. “What
makes the show interesting is the
characters and how we relate to
them so it was important to me
that the scenes were realistic, that
I got the tears, the laughter, the
jokes and the pain at the
right moment.”
And it’s a relatively per-
sonal story for Júlía, who
experienced a similar
struggle years ago, when,
stuck in a job she didn’t
like and feeling unful-
filled by life, packed her
things up and moved to
New York for film school.
“Even though they say that you
can’t escape all your problems or
your own demons—like we may
learn from Sara in the show—you
can definitely drown some of them
in beers at a diner in Brooklyn
while writing a movie-script and,
as you might imagine, I don’t re-
gret that decision,” she says. “Es-
pecially not today.”
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Film
Not pictured: the dildo
“Sara is clumsy,
selfish, funny
and adorable
and I love her.”
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