RAW YOUTH
Margreth Olin
Norway, Denmark, 2004, 80 minutes
A brutal truth about being young, RAW YOUTH has neither narration nor deliberate story, but is a microcosm of youth, showing the wide range of emotions one can experience. Director Margareth Olin whittled 120 hours of footage into 80 minutes that represent the life of a class of tenth grade students at a high school in Oslo, Norway.
That RAW YOUTH is abundantly real is apparent as the viewer is drawn deep into the turbulent lives of the teens. They struggle with universal issues--race, sexuality, culture, class--and adolescent, close-to-the-surface emotions make things perhaps all the more intense, as does the filmmaker's technique of presenting everything as is, without any comment from her.
Racial and religious issues seem at times to divide the group, and often the teachers are oblivious to slurs and misconceptions about other cultures, making them seem frighteningly inattentive. It is clear that the teens are living in the same post-9/11 world as Americans, where defining loyalty and learning to trust are difficult tasks.
The voyeuristic satisfaction of seeing this open, unsupervised, and vibrant life brings the film together. As Olin says, "Life in itself is enough, in all its beauty, comedy and cruelty." Made adhering to the strict rules of "Dogumentarism," the documentary branch of Lars von Trier's Dogme95 movement, this film aims to be transparent in its construction. It shows nothing but what is happening, without intervention, but hints, as well, at what is missing.
Rose Vincelli
Margareth Olin (born 1970) is a graduate of Volda College in Norway. She has written and directed several prize-winning documentaries and one short fiction film. Her short documentary MY BODY was show in the 2003 SILVERDOCS. RAW YOUTH has been seen by more than 40,000 people at Norwegian cinemas.
Print Source:
Toril Simonsen, Norwegian Film Institute
Dronningensgt 16
P.O. Box 482 Sentrum
Oslo, N-0105
Norway
Tel: +47.22.47.45.00
Fax: +47.22.47.45.97
Email: Toril.Simonsen@nfi.no
Wednesday 6/15 at 5:30 p.m.
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