Mette is 16, her father is slowly approaching 40. She confuses him with her playful, teasing, unconsciously - because he probably doesn't perceive her as a man at all - attractive manner, which in turn makes him ponder, as he now perceives his daughter as sexually attractive. When he finds naked photos of her, pure jealousy bursts out of him ...
Mette wrote Malmros specifically for Line Arlien-Søborg, the great revelation from Tree of Knowledge, while he portrayed himself in the character of the father with all his confused feelings. Seen in this light, one can understand that Malmros' wife was jealous of the intense relationship between the director and his youthful discovery - why should her husband, whose work was always autobiographical, make a film about a hebephilic-incestuous desire if there is nothing there in reality? In reality, however, it is about something more than this particular amorous constellation: it is about the most unlivable of all loves (Malmros' core theme) as well as the feeling of being trapped in a developmental limbo - both father and daughter are going through a kind of moulting period in which they leave one physical and social state and change into another. But they haven't arrived yet, the flesh is just there.
