The San Sebastián International Film Festival will host the world premiere of Weightless, a debut feature by Emilie Thalund that immerses audiences in the fragile, luminous threshold of adolescence.
At the center is 15-year-old Lea, spending her summer at a health camp on the cusp of the forest and the sea. Quiet, observant, and self-contained, she is suddenly confronted with new intensities: the magnetic pull of her fearless roommate Sasha, who seems to embody everything she is not, and the allure of Rune, a charismatic camp instructor whose reciprocated attention stirs in her an unfamiliar yet thrilling desire. What begins as a season of firsts unfolds into an intimate portrait of a girl navigating the intertwined awakenings of body, friendship, and power.
Director Emilie Thalund, working from a script co-written with Marianne Lentz, situates the film entirely within Lea’s perspective. “I wanted the audience to experience the world through her eyes and to take her experience seriously,” the filmmaker explains. “From an early age, girls are confronted with the weight of the male gaze, their value measured against how they look. With Weightless, I wanted to capture both the vulnerability and the strength of adolescence, that moment when you are learning to claim your presence in a world that keeps trying to minimize it.”
Official synopsis:
Fifteen-year-old Lea is spending her summer at a health camp tucked between the forest and the sea. Her new roommate, Sasha, is everything Lea wishes she could be: bold, magnetic, and unafraid to take up space in the world. While Sasha flirts with the local boys, Lea’s gaze is fixed on Rune, the camp’s charming instructor. When Rune reciprocates her attention, something awakens within Lea — an unfamiliar yet thrilling desire.
Rather than relying on conventional coming-of-age arcs, the film holds close to Lea’s subjectivity, shaping a world where every glance, silence, and touch carries heightened meaning. The friendship between Lea and Sasha offers a vital counterweight: a bond at once tender and volatile, filled with both salvation and rivalry. “Female friendships can be a kind of refuge,” the director says, “but they are also where frustrations and fears get played out. Adolescence is that constant flux, joy and darkness, power and vulnerability, always side by side.”
The health camp setting amplifies this tension. Structured around rules, expectations, and body surveillance, it becomes a microcosm for the pressures young women face. “Too often, children are told they must change themselves to fit in, rather than society being asked to change its judgments,” the director notes. “The camp let us explore this dynamic while also capturing the small joys and intimacies of growing up among peers.”
Weightless embraces a sensuous, immersive style. Working with cinematographer Louise McLaughlin, production designer Silje Aune Dammen, and costume designer Abebo Bø Getachew, the director crafts a poetic texture where every detail, from Sasha’s green nail polish to the sound of scooters in the distance, resonates with Lea’s inner life. Sound design is equally crucial: cicadas at night, children in the next room, or the faint hum of masculinity intruding into otherwise feminine spaces. “We wanted it to feel subjective,” the director says. “Like you’re inside her skin, inside her world.”
Anchored by the debut performances of Marie Helweg Augustsen and Ella Paaske, who collaborated closely on shaping their roles, Weightless avoids easy answers or sentimental closure. “Adolescence rarely offers neat resolutions,” the director reflects. “Our aim was not to deliver a conventional happy ending, but to reflect the truth of that age, where exhilaration and fragility coexist, and every experience leaves a mark.”