TrustNordisk has picked up international sales on filmmaker Mari Storstein’s debut feature “My First Love.”
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Filming is underway on the Norwegian film produced by Thomas Robsahm (“The Worst Person in the World,” “Loveable”) and Tøri Gjenda for Nordisk Film Production Norway and Amarcord.
Filling a crying need on the global market for stories with accurate representation of people with disabilities, highlighted by Hollywood star Ramy Youssef and “Coda” helmer Sian Heder as reported by Variety , “My First Love” offers a truthful and heartfelt story of a young disabled woman, told from the perspective of the director who herself has been in a wheelchair for her entire life.
Storstein, who studied filmmaking at the TV school of Lillehammer University College in Norway, has systematically used her camera to depict the plight of disabled persons and received multiple accolades for her work, including a Norwegian Gullruten (the country’s version of the Emmys) in 2018 for her documentary series “Søsken,” about six families in which one of the siblings has a disability.
“I’ve always loved telling stories. When I was little, my siblings and I would take our father’s camera and make short films in the neighborhood,” the director told Variety .
“At first, it was mostly for fun, but as I grew older and experienced a lot of injustice and discrimination, I realized that film can be used as a political tool in the fight for equality,” she said.
Her first feature, “My First Love,” co-penned with Tomas Myklobost, turns on Ella (19), a woman in a wheelchair, dependent on the system. When she moves away from home to study, her application for assistance is rejected, and she has to move into an institution instead of her own flat, as she had dreamed of for so long. At the same time, she meets her first love.
“My First Love” is the film I wish I had seen when I was young,” said the 38-year-old Storstein, who laments the usual “one-dimensional and stereotypical” portrayals of disabled people on screen, based on “myths and internalized prejudices” that often “end up being seen as the truth about us.”
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“It’s not enough for stories to be told about us. The stories about us must be told by us,” she said.
For the filmmaker, her feature is “about falling in love for the very first time, about opening up to another person and daring to put oneself out there, when society is telling you not to. It’s a story about being young and finding your place in this strange, scary, yet wonderful world.”
Susan Wendt, TrustNordisk CEO who picked up the feature at script stage, said it was a “very convincing and touching read, a strong and emotional story about an important subject matter – not being allowed to live the life you dream of and instead of that, becoming a prisoner in your own life.”
“It is important to have these stories on screens,” continued Wendt. “I’m absolutely convinced that Mari Storstein will tell this story with both warmth and humor for others to be able to relate to it.”
The feature, which received support from the Norwegian Film Institute, will be distributed locally by Nordisk Film Distribution in 2025.
At this week’s New Nordic Films market in Haugesund, Norway, TrustNordisk is repping Robsahm’s other production – the Karlovy Vary multiple award-winner “Loveable” by Lilja Ingolfsdottir, depicted by Variety reviewer Guy Lodge as “A marital drama that keeps our sympathies in flux.”
Three TrustNordisk titles have been showcased as works in progress in Haugesund: the Danish rural drama “Home Sweet Home” by Frelle Petersen produced by Zentropa, the Norwegian animated feature “The Polar Bear Prince” by Mikkel B. Sandemose and “Three Men and a Villa” by Charlotte Blom, both produced by celebrated Norwegian production house Maipo Film (“Bikechess”).
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