User Reviews

"Sommerjubel" or "After Spring" is a Norwegian 43-minute live action short film from 1986, so this one is already over 30 years old and it was written and directed by Alexander Røsler, his first career effort and not too many should follow. He was German-born, but spend his filmmaking career as his name suggests in Norway. The novel his film here is based on is by Rune Belsvik and you could say it is a bit of a coming-of-age film. A boy about to enter teenage years is crushing on a female friend and we never know how the friend feels about it, but in the end there is a decision if they end up as girlfriend and boyfriend. At the same time, the boy's father (I think) is experiencing a new sexual awakening too as he meets a woman he seems to be really interested in. Will there be a happy ending for him as well. Oh well, there are some pretty bizarre scenes I think that I did not really expect, but thinking about it, these scenes do not seem particularly unrealistic and it could have been perfectly this way kids behave during that age when they explore their own sexuality and attraction for the first time. Only because it was not this way for you and me, this does not mean, it couldn't be for others. So yeah, it was a close call for me between a positive and negative recommendation, between a thumbs-up and thumbs-down, but overall, I think the good aspects outweigh the weaker moments and honestly, there is some charme to this film at times, like how the boy imagines his love interest with the most female body while looking up in his room. That was funnily awkward for sure. Still, there is not a single scene when it is a great movie to be honest, so 3 out of 5 is still a bit on the generous side. A bit of a pity, Røsler's career was this short-lived. Oh yeah, unless you are fluent in Norwegian, get a good set of subtitles. This film is certainly udnerseen in my opinion and really not too easy to get a hand on these days. If you still manage to do so, go check it out because it starts not too great, but ets a bit better the longer it goes. Final note: This review comes from someone who has not read the literary work this is based on.