Taking its title from the Sonic Youth track which plays over the films final scene, Ursula Djukic’s ‘Little Trouble Girls’ is a quietly assured Slovenian drama about a teenage girl discovering where the borders of faith, desire, and selfhood intersect and blur. The film is a richly textured coming of age story, bolstered by stunning visuals and two terrific performances.
Quiet teenager Lucija (Jara Sofija Ostan) joins a catholic high-school choir, where she forms an intense bond with the popular and outgoing Ana-Maria (Mina Svajger) and her gossipy group of friends. Lucia’s repressed upbringing is challenged during a school trip to a convent, where the choir are staying for several days to rehearse for their upcoming performance. There are games of spin the bottle and truth or dare. Kissing practice and frank conversations about sexual experience, or lack thereof. They also spy on the local workmen who they see swimming naked in the river.
Given to drifting into daydreams, Lucija is overwhelmed by the new feelings awakening inside of her. Her sexuality and desire are beginning to stir, whilst deep-seated catholic guilt swells in response. Provoked and teased by the more experienced girls, her relationship with Ana-Maria fluctuates between flirtation and subtle manipulation. As if she’s not got enough going on, Lucija also has to try and navigate the social dynamics of high school cliques. Ostan and Svajger are perfectly cast, and both deliver absorbing and natural performances, which bely their inexperience.
The film is beautifully shot, with gorgeous use of close-ups that keep us inside Lucija’s sensory world—skin, breath, fabric, lips, and hovering fingertips—so that the story’s sensuality arrives through texture rather than explicitness. The sound design is equally precise and intimate, capturing the smallest of details, and then enveloping us in the choral voices during the rehearsals. With it’s dreamlike visuals, overt symbolism, and heady mix of nature and burgeoning carnality, the films draws faint but unmistakable echoes of ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’.
The conclusion of the film will likely split opinion, and will certainly not satisfy everyone. The film appears to be building towards something, but Djukic takes an intriguing turn opting for something more abstract. ‘Little Trouble Girls’ is a confident debut work from Djukic, combining craft and sensitivity, and confirming she is a director to watch. While the coming-of-age narrative is one we’ve encountered many times before, her refusal to deliver a tidy, conventional ending asks the audience to take a leap with her — but it’s one well worth taking.
