It is not often that Hello Kitty meets the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, but this is one such occasion. Norwegian director Lyngstad’s debut is absurd, provocative through and through, and surprisingly “cute”. The film ponders an unusual coming-of-age, forbidden feelings and the desire to control the past. Included in the New Directors competition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the dramedy holds up an uncomfortable mirror to society.

What can be more innocent than a cute little thing? Richard is reluctant to be a father. He refuses to move in with his girlfriend and her seven-year-old daughter, and finds himself back in his childhood home. There, he meets Stella, his mother’s caregiver with an online alter ego – Lolita. Between the reserved Richard and Stella, a strange role-play unfolds in which they both pretend to be what they find themselves longing for. He longs for the enchantment of childhood, while she yearns for the possibility of returning to it. Soon enough, their carefully constructed fantasy world begins to crumble.

A distinct Nordic sensibility featuring characters who seem to have stepped right out of a Radiohead music video – they embody an existential brokenness and experience themselves through their bodies. You might also spot a touch of Todd Solondz in the film’s anthropological cringiness. Lyngstad’s debut treads an extremely delightful and therapeutic line between transgression and sadness, childhood and maturity, a fleeting moment and the unchanging. “Cute” is “kawaii”, is thoroughly childish and charming: but how far can cuteness go before it becomes something different entirely? Often it transforms into the grotesque and falls prey to a violent gaze, leaving behind only a sentiment described aptly by a prominent writer: “I have only words left to play with.”