This wacky Norwegian black humor drama was chosen as the European comedy of the year, and the already experienced Ynvild Sve Flikke made a film whose main (anti) heroine is a kind of counterpart to the main character from the acclaimed British series “Fleabag” Phoebe Waller – Bridge. It is only at the very beginning that “Ninjababy” acts as one in a series of films about unwanted and unplanned pregnancies that we have had the opportunity to watch countless times. But it quickly turns into a hilarious, uncompromising black comedy about a girl who doesn’t want to be a mother. That girl is Rakel (extraordinary Kristine Kujath Thorp), a 23-year-old cartoonist who dropped out of graphic design studies and now lives in an apartment with a roommate. She constantly goes out, drinks, smokes, occasionally consumes drugs, and quite by accident she will discover that she is pregnant.
The potential father is a coiled aikido trainer Mos who likes Rakel, but when he arrives at the gynecologist, another shock will follow. She’s not a month, two or three pregnant. Rakel is already in an advanced stage of pregnancy, in the seventh month. That Ninja child somehow snuck up on her without her even realizing that the abortion she had planned was no longer an option. The option for her father is no longer Moss, with whom she ended up in bed one drunken night a month or two ago. But that’s why the option is what Raquel is most terrified of – having a baby and motherhood, and that’s something she doesn’t want at all. If this was an American film and some typical romantic comedy there, it would be easy to guess how it will all unfold, but in “Ninjababy” one surprise after another follows. As Rakel is a cartoonist and cartoonist, so she will create the character of a baby ninja who somehow sneaked into her womb without even realizing it for so long and will talk to her, argue.
From the beginning, it is clear to us that Raquel’s life was quite chaotic even before an unplanned pregnancy, and she is silly, vulgar, careless, dissolute and childish, as in most cases the male characters in similar films. So even though she has clearly decided that she does not want to be a mother and that she will get rid of the child once she gives birth, again the young Norwegian actress Kristine Kujath Thorp from Rakel has created an extraordinary character whose situation we can laugh at and sympathize with. . A fine balance of humor and drama has been achieved here, and the pathos and clichés that usually accompany such films about unplanned pregnancies have been completely avoided. All the more so because she has very little time left to decide what to do (for example, the baby would like Angelina Jolie to adopt her).
Although on paper this whole concept sounds silly, silly, maybe stupid, Flikke managed to make a fun, witty, realistic and honest film about the life of a young woman who found herself in a completely unexpected situation. No matter how likely the very thought of a woman terrified of motherhood and the realization that she will soon give birth to someone may seem blasphemous or wrong, yet “Ninjababy” is just a movie. Admittedly, a film that plays with some taboos and somewhat controversial topics, but it does so in an exceptional and original way, with a lot of style and spirit, very good characters who get a chance to develop. “Ninjababy” premiered in Berlin, where it won the Best Youth Film Award, and had 11 nominations for Best Norwegian Film of the Year, confirming those for Best Director, Screenplay, Leading Actress (Thorp) and Supporting Actor (Nader Khademi). who played a clumsy but careful and good-natured Moss).