![]() To say that Thelma is "touched" doesn't come close to expressing the intensity of response. Later, Anja approaches her at the pool where Thelma does laps, asking if she's feeling better. She tells the doctor she doesn't have epilepsy as far as she knows. Moments later, Thelma is overcome by a seizure which leaves her writhing on the floor. One day, while studying in the library, Anja ( Kaya Wilkins) sits down next to her, and the two have a brief casual exchange. Although she studies Biology, that most earthy of subjects, she appears so insubstantial that a breath of wind might blow her away. Thelma, raised in isolation, wanders through the partying social atmosphere of college like a prim little wraith. The sense of threat is palpable, but it's unclear what the threat is, and from which direction it comes. When Thelma confides in her father, her head resting wearily on his shoulder, the image of him pointing a rifle at her years earlier shivers around them like an afterimage. But the anxieties unleashed in the prologue reverberate, even during the long stretches where the film takes the form of a tremulous sexual-awakening story. She was raised a devout Christian, and her parents are concerned she may compromise her morals like so many young people do when they first leave home. They call her repeatedly if she doesn't answer her phone they have memorized her class schedule they ask her what she's cooking for dinner. She is still tied to her over-protective parents, Trond ( Henrik Rafaelsen) and wheelchair-bound Unni ( Ellen Dorrit Petersen). Thelma ( Eili Harboe) is now a freshman in college, starting her life away from home. When the father takes aim at a deer standing in the distance, the daughter is so riveted by the deer she is oblivious when her father turns to point the rifle at the back of her head. A father and his child walk across a frozen lake, tromping through snow-laden woods. The opening scene of "Thelma," Norwegian writer-director Joachim Trier's latest film, is so quietly unnerving its effect spills over into the rest of the film, creating a hall of echoes.
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