Teenager Claudia (Markella Kavenagh) is left isolated in her secluded rural Australian home with only her dog Tilly for company following the death of her mother. Initially wary, Claudia is pleased when Grace (Maiah Stewardson) happens upon the house and finds her. Like Claudia, Grace is a bit of a loner with no friends to speak of and a family that seemingly doesn’t care where she is. As the two girls spend time together, they find comfort and solace in one another that extends past friendship and becomes something altogether more meaningful.
‘My First Summer’ from filmmaker Katie Found is a classic coming-of-age movie centred around the fast bond that two young girls form. While Claudia and Grace’s circumstances may be different, they see something in each other that helps to establish trust and kinship, with Grace in particular pushing Claudia outside of her comfort zone to try new things. Grace promises to keep Claudia’s situation a secret and that allows the two girls to build a fantasy life together that sits outside of the restraints of the real world.
Grace’s arrival pulls Claudia out of the depths of depression, allowing her to move on from the loss of her mother and realise there is something more to live for. For Grace, finding Claudia gives her a friend and confidant away from her abusive and uncaring family. When the two girls are together in Claudia’s house, they experience joy and excitement for the first time and their mutual affection for each other builds with every interaction.
What Found does so beautifully here is allow the girls to pass from friends to something more without any need to explain it. This isn’t a coming out story with either girl battling her inner demons about her sexuality. There’s no conversation at all between Claudia and Grace about their attraction to each other, and that is definitely one of the film’s strong points. These are two girls that found each other at the right time and it’s engaging to watch them fall in love. They also have to learn to grow up quickly as their friendship takes them from children to young adults, and that’s something that’s captured well here.
Much of the weight of the film lands on the shoulders of Markella Kavenagh and Maiah Stewardson, and the actors are up to the task. They work so well together on screen that you want their secret to remain undiscovered. The actors have a shorthand with one another that builds quickly from their first scene together and you believe what unfolds on screen. They really are a joy to watch and the film is at its best when it’s only the two of them on screen.
‘My First Summer’ may suffer from being a tad too short, which leaves the ending unsatisfyingly wide open and ambiguous, but it packs plenty in to its 80 minutes. A fairly simple film, it captures a period of time in the lives of two girls that will likely go on to have great importance as they grow older. The story is sweetly told with plenty of care and attention, and it gifts the audience with two characters they can get behind and root for.
Cast: Markella Kavenagh, Maiah Stewardson, Steve Mouzakis Director: Katie Found Writer: Katie Found Certificate: 15 Duration: 80 mins Released by: Peccadillo Pictures Release date: Monday 11th April 2020 Buy ‘My First Summer’ now
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