We’ve had Catherine Hardwicke’s Thirteen, Rob Brown’s Sixteen, Richard Bell’s Eighteen, and now we have Monja Art’s Seventeen. Naming your film after a person’s age is popular, it seems.
Any-who, Seventeen [Siebzehn] is an LGBTQ coming-of-age story that follows Paula, an intelligent student who is in love with her classmate Charlotte. What this film does, unlike a lot of teen dramas, is completely normalise same sex relationships, which is rather refreshing. No judgements are made, only the usual teenage-bullying that happens in the classroom. The film deals with experimentation, aspirations and friendship in a natural and realistic way.
Elisabeth Wabitsch is wonderful as Paula – her interactions as natural and true. There are a few performances that are a bit dull, but it doesn’t take away from the film’s impact.
Art’s use of ‘fantasy’ sequences convey brilliantly what goes through a teenage mind. When Paula walks into a classroom, she imagines everyone is laughing at her, when in reality they are just getting on with the homework they should have done the night before.
There are the usual tropes: drugs, sex, fights, depression and partying, however they are not portrayed in an overtly garish way which is sometimes the case in films depicting teenage life.
It manages to deliver a nice balance between Thirteen and Blue Is The Warmest Colour, which I think is as good a review as I can give it (those two films being two of my faves).
For a low-budget Indie film, this is some strong work from Monja Art (my new favourite director name since Maren Ade) who seems to be picking up momentum Deutsch side. Catch it if you can!
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