SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2024 REVIEW! Intriguing stories, like Ivar Aase’s short film, Complications, are the ones that pry off the masks we wear in public and force us to be real.
Lotte (Anna Ladegaard) makes a good living as a webcam dominatrix. There’s nothing atypical about her current session with Arne (Sven Henriksen), who seems to be enjoying (I think?) his time with Lotte.
Without warning, Arne suffers a heart attack, and no one is around to help him. Lotte panics as she tries to get him to help, but she doesn’t know his location and must dance around their business with emergency service.

“Without warning, Arne suffers a heart attack, and no one is around…”
Complications is an exploration of modern human interpersonal relationships conducted online. The ongoing relationship between Lotte and Arne has been transactional up until this point. All forms of intimacy are initiated by an online “tip,” but this distant relationship is put to the test when an act of true love and friendship is forced.
Both Landegaard and Henriksen give good performances, but the star here is a story that takes its lead characters off-guard and requires them to be human. When connections are made, their relationship is fundamentally changed in the end.
Complications screened at the 2024 Slamdance Film Festival.