Itonje Søimer Guttormsen’s feature debut traces the story of a troubled young woman on the outside of outsider art
Before it dissolves out into a watery sort of nothingness, this feature debut from Norwegian director Itonje Søimer Guttormsen is an intriguing and subversive docu-type drama about the nature of creativity and how modern-day equivalents of the avant gardist Antonin Artaud might expect to be treated. Birgitte Larsen plays Gry-Jeanette Dahl, who goes by the name “Gritt”. She is a troubled, intense young woman, trying to break into experimental theatre and radical performance artforms, and basically in the unhappy position of being on the outside of outsider art.
As the film begins, Gritt has managed to fluke her way to
New York, part of a grant-funded Norwegian theatre company; she is employed as the emotional support person for Marte (Marte Wexelsen Goksøyr), a writer-performer with Down’s. Gritt affects a bland sort of insincere friendship with Marte, asking her questions about her career with a listless envy and resentment. Her own grant application for a gigantic installation performance piece called The White Inflammation is turned down and Gritt is angrily devastated, but doesn’t summon up the smallest inclination to attempt a smaller-scale version or to try funding it by some other means.
Gritt is available on 22 December on Mubi.