You want to live independently and follow your dreams? Of course, you do. And so does Ella, 19, the protagonist of Norwegian writer-director Mari Storstein’s fiction feature directorial debut My First Love. But there are barriers for her that you may not even be aware of when you start watching this coming-of-age story about desire, resilience and self-determination.

“Ella is ready to begin her adult life on her own terms,” reads a synopsis of the film, which world premiered this week in the First Feature Competition program of the 29th edition of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in Estonia. “Born with a disability and having always used a wheelchair, she dreams of moving into her first apartment when she leaves home to study. Instead, a denied application for assistance forces her into an institution — a crushing blow to her long-awaited independence. Just as the walls of bureaucracy close in, Ella experiences something entirely new: her first love.”

Emphasizes the PÖFF website: “Drawing on her own experience, filmmaker Mari Storstein offers rare authenticity — a love story told not ‘about’ but by someone who has always been on the inside of such a journey.”

Marie Flaatten and Niels Skaber star in My First Love, with Jan Gunnar Roise and Silje Breivik also featuring in the ensemble cast from Nordisk Film Production and co-producer Filmbin. Storstein wrote the script with Tomas Myklebost. The producers are Tori Gjendal and Thomas Robsahm, with Nicholas Sando as the co-producer. TrustNordisk is handling sales.

“My First Love is not directly autobiographical. It is based on stories from many people I know, and it is also based on my own experiences,” Storstein tells THR. “Many elements are taken from my own life, especially the encounters with the barriers Ella faces. As a disabled person, freedom and self-determination are not guaranteed. You have to fight for these things again and again, and that is still a big part of my life. It has been both meaningful and challenging to write a story that is so close and personal.”

The filmmaker’s 2011 short documentary Letter to Jens looked at the struggle of disabled people for freedom and how the municipality you live in can determine the kind of life you get to live. The doc won the best documentary award at the Norwegian Documentary Film Festival and created public debate.

Now, Storstein is taking audiences closer to, even inside, these struggles in a fiction narrative. “As a documentary filmmaker, I have heard countless stories from people fighting for self-determination and the right to live ordinary lives. I have often been denied permission to film the very moment when injustice occurs. It has been frustrating to know that ‘this is happening,’ but not be allowed to capture it with a documentary camera. Fiction allowed me to tell a story I have carried with me for a long time.”

Flaatten and Skaber shine as Ella and Oliver, who immediately feel drawn to each other. For the female star, it is her first acting role, which surprised people who saw the film in Tallinn.

My First Love, courtesy of Nordisk Film

Courtesy of Nordisk Film

“We started the casting process early and developed the script in parallel. We knew we had to search thoroughly for the lead role and kept the process very open. We considered different ages and different genders, and we were prepared to rewrite the script based on who we found,” Storstein recalls. “I remember clearly when I first watched Marie’s casting tape. ‘There she is,’ I thought. She was so open, engaged, and already had many thoughts about the project. Marie was not chosen only because her own experiences bring authenticity and depth that could not be achieved otherwise. She is a remarkable actor with presence, strength and vulnerability.”

Flaatten found out about the film project and decided to go for the role. “I came across an article that said they were searching for actresses for this role, and I thought, ‘this is interesting,’” the young newcomer tells THR. “I haven’t been doing acting at all before this, so I had to learn how to do it, and my plan was to give it a shot and work so hard that if I was told that I didn’t get the role, I could still be satisfied with my effort. But it went better than I could have even imagined. So I’m really grateful.”

The onscreen chemistry between the leads is palpable, so you may think they go way back when watching My First Love. But that is not the case. “We went to an audition together,” Skaber tells THR. “And then we had rehearsals of some scenes, like the intimate scenes and other stuff. So we got to know each other pretty well before we started shooting the film.”

An intimacy coordinator was present at the casting, at the rehearsals, as well as on set for the shooting of all the intimate scenes.

Skaber’s shooting schedule started off with some of the most challenging scenes, including a scene in bed with his co-star and another scene for which he had to learn how to play the guitar. “The first day was for the most intimate scenes,” he recalls. So it was good that I knew Marie, and that our director is very good. It made the whole thing much safer. “And on the third day, I think, was a scene where I sang in front of 1,400 people. I was pretty nervous because I’m not a singer. But when I got up there and started, everybody helped out with clapping.”

Flaatten also felt comfortable shooting scenes of intimacy. “It was a very good process, so we both felt safe,” she shares. But for her, the hardest scene was a different one. “The most difficult scene for me was our breakup,” she explains. “It was really important to me to do the breakup scene well.”

Mari Storstein and Marie Flaatten, courtesy of Tori Gjendal

The actress and her director worked together closely to shape Ella and her story. “It was important for both of us to show Ella as a complete human being,” emphasizes Storstein. “She can be cool, but she can also be annoying. She is strong and vulnerable, insecure and confident. And she’s in love.”

Adds Flaatten: “We were definitely talking a lot about who Ella is, so it was a real cooperation to sort her out. I’m really glad that I had Mari as a partner in that process. We both have a disability and are using wheelchairs. So based on that, we can both relate to Ella’s situation. But even so, Ella is her own person, and Ella’s story is neither my nor Mari’s story, but it’s based on real events.”

Skaber was thankful for the openness of his onscreen partner to help him understand living with a wheelchair better. “Marie really early on said, ‘If you have any questions, just ask!’ So I asked questions, and I feel that I know more now and understand and notice things that I wouldn’t really think about at the start of the movie. For example, these stairs over there!”

Will audiences get to see more of Flaatten on screen in the future? “I hope so,” she tells THR. “That’s what I want to do now.”

Adds Storstein: “I truly hope Marie gets the chance to do more films. If she does not, it will not be because she lacks talent, but because the industry is not yet ready for her. I hope this film inspires more stories with disabled characters, and more roles where disabled people are included not because the story is ‘about disability,’ but simply because we exist.”

Flaatten’s hope for My First Love is also that it will help open more eyes. “It’s an important movie, because people think they know, but I think you really have to witness it to really understand how it is,” she says. “It’s a general problem that the world is not that accessible. But I also think that the movie is so good because it not only focuses on the problems. It’s oriented toward how many possibilities there are, if some adjustments are made.”

Concludes the star: “I think that the most important thing about film is that it can help people realize that we are all human beings, and that we all want the same thing, and that there are a lot of possibilities, if we look for good solutions.”