The trailer for Danish filmmaker Annika Berg’s directorial debut, “Team Hurricane,” begins with one seemingly overwhelming mantra: “Don’t be so hard on yourself.” This idea is immediately juxtaposed with a discussion about the term “bitch.” “Is being a bitch a bad thing?” one girl asks. “Yeah. A bitch is someone who bitches,” another replies.
“Team Hurricane” follows a group of teenage girls as they attend a youth club for the summer. According to The Playlist, Berg found the cast — which includes Eja Penelope Roepstorff, Ida Glitre, Maja Leth Bang, Mathilde Linnea Daugaard Jensen, Elise Pedersen, Sara Morling, Zara Munch Bjarnum, and Ira Rønnenfelton — on social media.
Like many teenage films, Berg focuses on how these girls struggle with their identity, both individually and collectively. While one reveals that she “can’t be alone and feel good about herself,” another feels that she hasn’t “lived up to [others’] expectations and that they just hate her.”
However relatable its content may be, “Team Hurricane” differs in its delivery. The ebb and flow of raw teenage emotion is personified through Berg’s unique experimental style. She mixes “highly stylized fictional elements” with documentary material to visually capture how these “radical girls” function “in an ordinary world.”
“Team Hurricane” is one of four female-helmed films scheduled to play during Venice Film Festival’s Critics’ Week, which will be held from August 30-September 9.
