Ninjababy

Curzon has picked up UK distribution for the Norwegian comedy drama Ninjababy and will be launching the film at the 2021 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Set to be released in cinemas and on Curzon Home Cinema on the 10th of September, the second feature from Norwegian filmmaker Yngvild Sve Flikke is an anarchic comedy about a fun-loving twenty-something who faces a radical change in her life.

Illustrator Rakel (Kristine Kujath Thorp) lives life to the full. You might say she is a glass half full kind of person – unless the liquid in the glass is beer, which would result in it being empty. Partying all the hours she can, Rakel is more interested in a pick-up when she needs it rather than any kind of sustained relationship. This is exactly what happened with aikido instructor Mos (Nader Khademi) a couple of weeks back. But now her friends have noticed some changes. Her appetite has increased. Her breasts seem bigger – no problem there, as far as Rakel’s concerned. But the rapidly increasing waistline doesn’t look so great.

Ninjababy (2021)

When she finds out she’s already six months pregnant, with Mos likely to be candidate for the father, what Rakel’s trying to figure out is just how robust his sperm is when it successfully made its way past two forms of contraception! However, such quandaries soon become moot when Rakel comes face-to-face with an animated version of her embryo, commenting on the likely father, the state of her apartment and her life in general.

Ninjababy (2021)

Based on Inga H. Sætre’s graphic novel Fallteknikk (Fall Technique), and written by her with Flikke and Johan Fasting, Ninjababy makes the average Hollywood comedy about pregnancy – Knocked Up (2007), Juno (2007), etc. – look tame. Rakel has a raucous, mischievous, live-life-to-the-full spirit and her pregnancy is a challenge she gradually faces up to. Thorp captures her perfectly, balancing the script’s humour with more than enough depth for us to care about Rakel’s predicament. The film’s frankness is refreshing. But its trump card is Flikke’s ability to balance comic outrage within a sweet tale that simultaneously avoids cynicism and sentimentality. The animation is perfectly integrated into the drama and, though the film maintains its knockabout humour, it also manages to grapple with the issues that come with impending parenthood.