Written by Kenza Bouhnass Parra
Urška Djukić’s first long feature, Little Trouble Girls, premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival and went on to be selected as the Slovenian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards. The film, co-written by Maria Bohr, follows introverted teenager Lucija (Jara Sofija Ostan) who joins an all-girls catholic choir and befriends the vibrant Ana-Marija (Mina Švajger). When the choir retreats at a convent in the countryside, it falls under the spell of the older girl, becoming tormented when her emerging sexuality ends up confronting existing religious beliefs.
Little Trouble Girls is a gentle look into a young girl’s first encounter with desire. By choosing the subjective path through Lucija’s gaze, it allows the audience to enter her mind, her fears and doubts, her impulses and needs. We, alongside her, are pulled between divine imagery and acute reality, oscillating with a subtlety and aching sincerity that makes us have no choice but to dive headfirst into the teenager’s perception. Her innocence is captivating, found in Jara Sofija Ostan’s beautiful performance, with a certain gleam in her eyes that pulls you from the audience and makes you cross the screen to stand right there, next to her. Painting tender and light portraits in moments of clairvoyance while creating shadowy angles when desire takes over, Lev Pedran Kowarski’s cinematography soothes and conciliates with the never-ending thoughts crossing Lucija’s mind. But it is the sound design that truly shines, from the deeply soul-moving choir, that seems to be blessing us down from heaven directly, to the distressing hushed whispers on which the film opens that haunt Lucija’s all along her journey. The use of silence, in particular, is striking in how it allows its main character to observe and feel, get lost in her interiority, sink within her shame, and come back from it. The isolation she feels is felt through all kinds of senses, and it is with sound that she is brought back to the world of the living, where shame is a passing thought and not a way of operating.
Now playing in German cinemas and releasing in France on February 18th, keep an eye out for when this one is releasing close to you; it is worth going out of your way for. I personally hold queer coming-of-age stories close to my heart, and Little Trouble Girls managed to touch on heartstrings that hadn’t been rung yet
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