Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Urška Djukić
Starring: Jara Sofija Ostan, Mina Švajger, Saša Tabaković, Nataša Burger, Staša Popović, Mateja Strle
Coming-of-age dramedies sent against the backdrop of Catholic schools have tended to nail their colours firmly to the mast of secularism. But with this year's American indie Lemonade Blessing and now Slovenian writer/director Urška Djukić's Little Trouble Girls, we're beginning to see more nuanced takes on this format. Both films feature teenage protagonists whose raging hormones and burgeoning desires clash with everything they've been told by their priests and teachers, but while there are laughs to be had at the dated stuffiness of Catholicism, neither film seeks to cheaply demonise religion. Djukić's film argues that a sexual and spiritual awakening don't have to be mutually exclusive.
The young protagonist here is Lucija (Jara Sofija Ostan), a shy 16-year-old who joins her Catholic school's all-girls choir. There she is taken under the wing of popular girl Ana Maria (Mina Švajger), who is confident and sexually forthright in a way that simultaneously shocks and excites Lucija.
When the choir travels to an Italian convent for a three-day retreat, Lucija is overcome with sexual and spiritual confusion. She finds herself attracted to Ana Maria, but also to a hunky worker on the nearby construction site. Her innocence is mocked by her classmates during a game of truth or dare, but Ana Maria sticks up for her. When dared to kiss "the most beautiful girl in the convent," Lucija shocks the other girls by snogging a statue of the Virgin Mary.
That act sums up the complexity of Djukić's film and its attitude towards sex and religion. While the other girls likely view it as an act of blasphemous rebellion on Lucija's part, Lucija is simply being honest. For all the temptations of her more sexually mature choirmates, Lucija is in love with religion.
Ironically, with its sexual forthrightness, Little Trouble Girls is the sort of movie most Christians will steer clear of, but it's a film that comes down on their side. The case is made that religion shouldn't interfere in one's sexuality, but it's also clear that Lucija simply isn't ready to be thrust into the world of adult pleasures. When Ana Maria cheekily asks a nun how she can live without a man's touch, the nun speaks of how God's touch is all she needs. Ana Maria later mocks the response, but Lucija isn't so quick to dismiss it. It can be easy to dismiss nuns as victims of an oppressive patriarchal system, but Little Trouble Girls paints these women in something of a feminist light as they boast of how they've built a small world that functions without male assistance or interference. The closest the film has to a villain on the side of Catholicism is choirmaster Bojan (Saša Tabaković), who cruelly bullies Lucija when she makes the sort of confession he doesn't want to hear.
As the eternally flustered Lucija, newcomer Ostan is quietly revelatory, conflicting emotions constantly dancing across her big expressive eyes. Švajger is similarly engaging as the brassy but shallow Ana Maria. Djukić's direction is largely low-key, allowing her talented young stars to take centre stage, but occasionally takes expressionist detours into montages of blossoming flowers as though to contrast how easily nature transitions from innocence to maturity with the messiness of being a teenage girl on the cusp of adulthood.
Little Trouble Girls is in UK/ROI cinemas from August 29th.
