I Was Fifteen

This Norwegian entry in the adolescent-initiation stakes tastefully refrains from an explicit depiction of its hero's first faltering attempts at sexual congress, and instead diverts us at inordinate length with phallic symbols and boyish customs (boasting, blowing up condoms, chaste kissing in the rain). The plot concerns a youngster sent to his uncle's farm for the summer; the uncle is extremely randy, and his homely wife makes up for his neglect of her by overfeeding their nephew. Going for a swim, uncle discovers the body of an orphaned girl made pregnant by him (her pasty make-up washes off before our very eyes). Set sometime in the past, judging from the magazines the boy ogles, this sombre film aims, rather uncertainly, at highlighting the hypocrisy of adulthood and the winsomeness of youth.