London Film Festival review - En Som Deg (Must Have Been Love)

Eirik Svensson's debut feature is a low-key, poetic romance that is more about loneliness than love. The film opens in Istanbul, where Kaisa (a Finnish girl) meets Jakob (a Norwegian guy) on holiday. They have an instant connection, but he leaves before they can swap mobile numbers, or even tell each other their surnames. When she moves to Oslo, she bumps into Andreas, who looks a lot like Jakob, and begins a relationship with him. But he just isn't the same.

What is lovely about this film is how naturalistic the conversations are. Unafraid of using silence, the characters talk to each other in awkward English and much of what is said is through the eyes.

And what eyes. Pamela Tola is luminous as Kaisa. Alone in a new city, we can feel her longing for warmth and familiarity. Espen Klouman-Høiner does an amazing job of playing two characters – I really didn't realise he was both Jakob and Andreas until I saw the credits (though that may have been because Klouman-Høiner looks 10 times more attractive without a moustache than with one).

The cinematography is beautiful – all four featured cities are crisply realised in muted tones. A soundtrack full of acoustic Nordic folk rock matches this perfectly.

This is a film where very little happens, but what does happen means a lot. It explores how people can project their past onto those around them, seeing what they want to see instead of what is there. Ok – so of course I wanted them to just friend each other on Facebook, which would have instantly solved all their problems, but I still enjoyed this quiet and heartfelt journey.