Writer: Marianna Lentz
Director: Emilie Thalund
The BFI London Film Festival has always had a strong strand of female-centric stories, particularly those that focus on the exploits of young women discovering their bodies and personalities for the first time. This year is it Marianna Lentz’s Weightless that offers a new perspective with a focus not only on the predatory behaviours of an older man in a position of responsibility but also the heartbreaking uncertainty of first love and the impact of body shaming on personal and sexual confidence.
Spending the summer at a healthy eating and exercise camp with fellow teenagers, Lea quickly falls in a friendship with more experienced roommate Sasha, leading to some uncomfortable situations with local boys. But Lea is drawn to tutor Rune who goes out of his way to make her feel special, and as they spend time alone lines are crossed leaving Lea devastated by the consequences.
Lentz’s 100-minute film by debut director Emilie Thalund builds its scenario well without being afraid to look all around the motivations of its characters to find both good and bad traits as well as kind and foolish behaviours. It gives Weightless a quiet authenticity that becomes engrossing and anyone who has been a teenage girl will recognise many of Lea’s experiences, from entering a new environment and feeling unsure where you fit, to being uncomfortable about your body, shy around aggressively sexual boys and confused about painful rejection when the behaviour of someone you care about is unexpectedly dismissive or even cruel.
Around the emotional heart of the film and the almost immersive perspective that Thalund creates around Lea’s interior life is a political dimension that the character is hardly aware of but it shapes her weeks at camp. The hypersexualisation of young women is an important context, creating the kind of peer pressure that takes Lea from uncomfortable third wheel in her friend Sasha’s (Ella Paaske) escapades to actively pursuing a relationship with a teacher in his 30s, and Lea is not faultless in her unsubtle demands for his attention. But Rune (Joachim Fjelstrup) exploits her vulnerability and age, grooming her towards a sexual assault that muddies concepts of consent – Lea may agree to some of the things he asks but not all, and her harrowed face reveals her discomfort at being so close to an adult male in this moment.
Lentz also examines the physical pressures to look a certain way, and while again Lea has agency in choosing to attend the camp and is undertaking extra classes, the crude reaction of boys to her body, the questioning of her beauty and how it impacts her self-esteem, driving her towards Rune and wanting to swim alone, are significant. The interactions with Rune do little to improve this however, using her body for his own gratification and not building any positivity. Weightless brings together these broader issues and channels them through Lea’s experience in meaningful ways.
Marie Helweg Augustsen gives an incredibly expressive performance as Lea, saying a great deal with relatively little text, helping to build the rather fragile perspective of her character and the little moments of pain she endures. It is a gentle film in many ways and one that presents a scenario that isn’t solved but instead reflects the experience of many young women whose confidence and self-belief is exploited and then shaped by these formative experiences.
Weightless is screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2025 from 8-19 October.
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