Love is a Norwegian drama film with adult themes, written and directed by Dag Johan Haugerud. It had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for both the Golden Lion and the Queer Lion. It received its UK theatrical release on 15 August 2025.

It forms the second part of the Oslo Stories Trilogy, which consists of Sex, Love and Dreams (Sex Love). I saw Sex, the first part of the trilogy, at the 2024 BFI London Film Festival, and went along to the Hyde Park Picturehouse in Leeds on Friday for Love. No doubt in the not-too-distant future there will also be Dreams.

Haugerud has said that he was inspired by Kieślowski’s Three Colours trilogy, and that the three films “should look and feel very different, but give the impression that they are all part of the same conversation.” The conversation to which he refers is an exploration into modern approaches to sex within Norwegian society, in particular looking at the different philosophies between the heterosexual and homosexual worlds. I think.

Anyway, the film is set in Oslo, of that I am certain. It concerns two colleagues in a Hospital Urology Department: a consultant, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig); and a nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen). Tor is gay and explains his somewhat casual approach to sexual encounters to Marianne; she wonders if such an approach would work for her, dispensing with the baggage that tends to come with most heterosexual encounters. And so she explores this possibility, much to the disapproval of her best friend Heidi (Marte Engebrigtsen), who instead tries to set her up in a more traditional relationship with a twice-divorced friend. However, it is Tor who is to develop a more serious relationship with one of his hook-ups, who turns out to be a urology patient at the same hospital, recovering from an operation to remove his prostate.

The film treats these issues in a very open and grown-up way and whilst it is fun and engaging, it is also a serious conversation on modern sexual practices, as was Sex which dealt with the fallout from a casual homosexual encounter by a married heterosexual man. I enjoyed both, though I think Love was the better film; I am looking forward to Dreams, which has been released but is proving difficult to track down here in the frozen north (Yorkshire, not Norway).

If you are open-minded when it comes to matters of sex, then Love is certainly worth a visit (as is Sex).