Aphelirus

-"Why do Norwegian artists, exhibiting in Norway, always pick English titles?" a darkly humorous, deeply uncomfortable picture about the timeless desire to be validated, to be seen, and to even have people pity you, according to director kristoffer borgli, chronicling two thoroughly abhorrent people caught up in an ouroboros of mutual ego -- might just be one of the most effective things i've seen tackling these specific psychological ailments. the narcissism on display here doesn’t spring from pure egoism; rather, it’s born from a desperate, bottomless need to suck up approval from the outside world to mask a profound, echoing inner shallowness. it's a film about terrible people who are brilliantly succeeding in digging their own graves using increasingly sophisticated methods. even so, kristine kujath thorp is phenomenal as signe, anchoring the chaos with a performance where genuine humanity occasionally seeps through the rot; for all of signe's reckless, terrifying desperation for attention and recognition, her "artist" boyfriend thomas is right there beside her, operating as a grade-A narcissistic asshole in his own right. and in a twisted way, i couldn't help but feel a strange empathy for signe -- mostly because you watch her compounding delusions and realize she's essentially walking herself straight toward self-destruction. the detailed catalog of methods and daily behaviors feels uncomfortably familiar. i mean, who among us didn’t, as a child, stage flamboyant funeral fantasies or invent borderline-ridiculous personal lore (the delight of having allergies and someone being dead is controversial, so action-packed) just to make the peer group lean in a little closer? those infantile demeanors and pathological little lies are almost charming in kids, but they become full-blown social deformities when migrate into adulthood. add a hefty dose of pitch-black absurdity to the mix, and you're in for a rough ride. the body horror here is genuinely nauseating -- the sort of visceral, unexpected left-hook that will completely blindside you even if you thought you knew what you were getting into based on the premise alone. 🤢 -"I am a very interesting person, and soon everyone will realize it." if you ever needed a cinematic reminder of why performative suffering is a fast track to absolute madness, here is your definitive instructional manual.