A truly heart-warming story of love, family and the desire to have a child, August B Hanssen and Even G Benestad’s engaging documentary Fatherhood (Tre Fedre) follows Kristopher, David and Sindre, all in their thirties and living in a loving multi-partner relationship, and who are expecting their first child. The additional spin here is that Kristopher is the birth father and one of Norway’s trans pioneers.
Between 1979 and 2016, trans people in Norway were forced to undergo sterilisation, depriving them of their right to bear children. For Kristopher, his pregnancy is a result of a remarkable coincidence – despite undergoing the mandatory sterilisation as part of his transition, his uterus was left healthy and functional.
The film opens with the three sweetly nervous protagonists waiting to see the gynaecologist for an ultrasound. Their excitement is palpable, with months of planning leading up to that special moment when a tiny heart beats inside Kristopher.
The film follows them over the pregnancy period, dipping into their lives at various intervals as they prepare for fundamental change. Five months in, and they are in full nesting mode as they start painting a nursery in readiness. Kristopher comments that he never wanted to have ovaries and uterus removed – but it was mandatory in order to get an ID card and to guarantee access to medical treatment.
He prepares – watched over by David and Sindre – a formal complaint again the hospital. He writes: ”I was castrated against my will, forced to remove my ovaries. I lost my ability to have a baby. I had been told by the therapists that there was no point in freezing any eggs, they wouldn’t survive. And that my uterus had been destroyed by the testosterone treatment.”
He thought that he couldn’t have children since he had been told his “uterus was ruined…until I became pregnant through IVG and a donor egg in May, 2022,” although he had to go abroad for the process as he is legally male in Norway and didn’t qualify. Seven months in and people start to stare; eight months and Kristopher gets sick with pre-eclampsia, and when it is Christmas they all have a charged conversation about religion – Kristopher was brought up in a religious family, but David (”like, as little as possible” says David) and Sindre are less convinced.
Footage of the birth itself is delicately handled, with emphasis on love, support and compassion, as the film dwells on the family’s pure love and support for Kristopher and their baby daughter. What follows is sweet and engaging – they look into IVF to try and have another child; their daughter is christened (which makes Kristopher’s mother happy) and they find a balanced happiness in their family life…though as the film closes they ask an underlying question…”Have we become normal?…I worry she will turn against us…there is always a question of what if!”
At its warm and gentle heart Fatherhood is very much a self-aware universal story about becoming parents for the very first time…for sure their circumstances are somewhat different, but their concerns are at their core about their new daughter and her future.
Norway-Iceland-Germany, 2025, 77mins
Dirs/scr: August B Hanssen, Even G Benestad
Production: Journeyman Pictures, Indie Film
Producer: Carsten Aanonsen, Hfafnhildur Gunnarsdottir
Cinematography: Even Benestad, Lars Erlend Tubaas Oymo
Editor: Geir Fjermestad Rolandsen
Music: Kjartan Dagur Holm, Sindri Mar Siggusson
