A man buys a PlayStation from a woman.


TRANSACTIONS is used with permission from Ivar Aase. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/ivarpinhead.


Vegard goes to the apartment of a woman named Lotte, who has been corresponding with him online about buying her PlayStation console. It seems to be a normal business transaction, and they chitchat lightly on topics ranging from her high heating bills to saving money. They seem not to have much in common Lotte is a young student struggling to make ends meet, and Vegard is an older and wealthier man.

But as the encounter continues, Vegard reveals he knows Lotte from a different context. He wants to make her a deal, one that will promise her freedom and money. But the question of power remains up in the air.

Directed by Ivar Aase and written by Erik Ivar Saether, this dark, intriguing short drama confines its two characters to one location in realtime, taking advantage of the intensity of the compressed format to set up a catandmouse game of power, control and seduction between two players whose everyday surfaces belie secrets and hidden compulsions.

The film begins ordinarily enough, as a man visits a younger woman in an apartment, looking to buy her gaming console. They make small talk, but the man is quick to notice certain details around her home, lending a shiftiness to an otherwise quotidian situation. Coupled with the shadowy, almost claustrophobic cinematography, the storytelling builds up a distinct sense that all is not what it seems.

The narrative's quiet unpredictability builds up suspense as Vegard probes Lotte for her attitudes towards her life, particularly around finances, which she is surprised and then made uneasy by, particularly as Vegard gets nosier and intrudes upon her personal space. Vegard, as played by actor Preben Hodneland with a poised but almost uncanny sense of control and containment, has another agenda for his visit, one that he reveals to Lotte's shock. It's a proposition, one that would elevate her financially and change her life for the time being. But it also unmasks Lotte, which also functions as a loss of control over the situation. Actor Anna Ladegaard excels in portraying Lotte's different layers, from the struggling, everyday student to a cannier, slyly powerful operator, proving that the young woman is more than a match for the wealthier older man in many ways, despite his wealth and status.

Compelling and engaging with excellent writing and directing, the last part of TRANSACTIONS is essentially a pasdedeux between Lotte and Vegard, who square off as they make a proverbial deal. But underneath the terms and conditions, there's another game being played, as both jockey for a sense of dominance of the situation. This is no mere transaction of give and take, but a dance of power and control, and the question of who wins this game is left tantalizingly up in the air at the film's end, to provocative effect.