Film
The Time In Between
A 24-minute Norwegian short that traces a forbidden teenage romance across decades, moving between two girls' intense present and their older selves' fractured memory of it. Tender and aching, shot with remarkable restraint. For anyone who's felt the weight of a love that couldn't survive its own time.
If you liked this
Carol2015
A lush, carefully observed portrait of two women discovering each other across class and era, with the same bittersweet understanding that love and circumstance don't always align. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara are extraordinary.
But It's deliberately paced and melancholic; if you need plot momentum or a redemptive ending, this will feel like watching paint dry.
Moonlight2016
Three chapters of a Black man's life, each its own act of tenderness and rupture. Achingly beautiful cinematography and a profound meditation on desire, identity, and what we carry into adulthood.
But It's episodic and elliptical; crucial emotional beats happen in silence or off-screen, which demands active attention.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire2019
Two women in isolation painting each other into being. French, sensual, and structurally brilliant—it understands that the most erotic thing is attention, and the most tragic thing is running out of time.
But It's in French with subtitles, and deliberately slow. Also somewhat abstract about its own narrative.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Amour2012
Both films understand that memory is its own form of loss, and that looking back at love is often painful precisely because it was real.
Michael Haneke's devastating portrait of an elderly couple facing terminal illness and the impossible choice between love and mercy. It shares *The Time In Between*'s refusal to sentimentalise: time shapes us and sometimes destroys what we cherish.
But It is genuinely harrowing and offers no comfort whatsoever. Three hours of watching someone you love deteriorate is not entertainment.
More like this (8)
My Own Private Idaho1991
Gus Van Sant's masterpiece about two street hustlers and the durability of love in impossible circumstances. Poetic, strange, and genuinely moving about male intimacy in a way most films aren't.
But It's weird, digressive, and shot through with genuine despair. Not comforting viewing, and the plot isn't always clear.
Céline and Julie Go Boating1974
A dreamlike French film about two women who become obsessed with each other and a mysterious house. Strange and playful, with an anarchic joy that somehow deepens into something tender.
But It's 193 minutes long and genuinely bewildering. You have to let go of conventional narrative logic entirely.
Blue Is the Warmest Color2013
An intimate, unflinching portrait of a young woman's coming-of-age through an affair with an older artist. The performances are raw and the film treats its characters' desire with complete seriousness.
But It's sexually explicit and emotionally brutal. The ending is deliberately punishing, and some find the director's approach to the material exploitative.
Fingersmith2005
A BBC adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel about two young women caught in a conspiracy that becomes genuine love. Gorgeously shot, genuinely suspenseful, and both of them are complex and sharp.
But The central twist is intricate; you need to stay with it, and rewatching changes the emotional weight substantially.
Thelma & Louise1991
A young woman discovers supernatural powers tied to her awakening sexuality and forbidden love for another woman. Visually stunning and structurally inventive, it makes the internal external.
But It's a genre film first, so if you're expecting social realism you'll be disappointed. Also quite heavy-handed symbolically.
The Watermelon Heist2003
A Danish film about two teenage girls navigating desire and friendship in the summer before everything changes. Naturalistic and unsentimental, with real observation of how young people speak and move.
But It's very quiet and low-key; there's minimal plot, and some find it aggressively mundane rather than poignant.
Troll Hunter2010
Both are Norwegian films from the same year that treat their subject with complete earnestness despite how unusual it is. Both find poetry in the ordinary.
A found-footage Norwegian film about hunting trolls in the forests of Norway. Completely different in genre and tone, but shot with the same luminous attention to Nordic landscape and the same quiet, matter-of-fact strangeness.
But It's a creature-feature with low-budget effects that don't always convince. If you need cinematic spectacle, you won't find it here.
Listen2020
Like *The Time In Between*, it's about how the past lives in the present, and how memory becomes indistinguishable from grief. Both understand that sometimes the saddest thing is simply what happened.
A Danish series about a teenage girl's disappearance and the fractured family left behind. It's a mystery, but not really—the real story is how trauma rewrites people. Formally inventive and genuinely heartbreaking.
But It's bleak and complex; watching it requires emotional stamina, and it doesn't resolve neatly. Some find it punishingly dark.
People
Cast
Heidi ToiniRuth Maier - Young
Bente BørsumRuth Maier - Old
Directing
- Henrik Martin DahlsbakkenDirector