See The Intense New Trailer For Psychosexual Thriller ‘Thelma’

“There’s something within you, Thelma”

by Sarah Beauchamp

Thelma, a new psychosexual thriller from Norwegian director Joachim Trier, will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival this week, and it looks, to put it mildly, incredible. The trailer, released today, opens with the titular character, played by Eili Harboe, sitting at a desk in a quiet classroom when her love interest Anja, played by Okay Kaya, joins her. Suddenly, Thelma's hands begin to shake and she seizes on the floor as crows fly into the windows of the school. 

From the clip, it's clear Thelma's feelings for this young woman are causing these physical, telekinetic reactions. Her religious parents try to "help" her with her attraction to women, by putting her through what looks like some kind of electroshock therapy. "Lord, save me from these thoughts," Thelma says in the trailer. 

As her attraction to Anja grows, we see windows spontaneously implode and snakes crawl into Thelma's bed as a person catches on fire in the middle of a lake. "There's something within you, Thelma," her doctor says at the end of the trailer as she levitates off the hospital bed. There sure is.

Trier also directed Louder Than Bombs and Oslo, August 31.

Watch the intense new trailer, below.