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The Wayward Girl
Dir.: Edith Carlmar | 95 minutes

The Wayward Girl

Norway 1959 | 95 minutes | Norwegian | Hebrew, English subtitles

The story is simple, a 17-year-old girl with a troubled background and a rebellious personality runs away from the big city with her boyfriend to his family's country house, despite his bourgeois parents' disapproval. Isolated from the world in a wooden house in the depths of the woods, the relationship between the two blossoms (at least on his part). This idyll existence shatters when a stranger unexpectedly appears at their door. The story of the young lovers revealed to the world one of the biggest stars. Liv Ullman, in her debut film, plays a different character from the ones we attribute to her. Gerd is a dramatic and sensual character; she is a type of femme fatale but also gullible, dangerous and intimidating, yet innocent and full of youthful spirit. She is full of sexuality, but requires empathy. This dichotomy, along with sensational elements (some would say exaggerated ones), carries The Wayward Girl, allowing Edith Carlmar, the first Norwegian female director, to examine the hypocrisy of bourgeois society and patriarchal control.