Sonja

Sonja is a 16-year-old girl who can't seem to fit in. She is alienated from friends and family alike, indifferent to her boyfriend, but irresistibly drawn to her friend Julia. She writes in her diary about her feelings for Julia, but her mother snoops and scowls, leading Sonja to take a holiday with her father. While at the beach house, she decides to try out this whole heterosexuality thing, but with a rather iffy older man. The teen angst is palpable throughout the film, but I didn't really get a good sense of the characters; in particular, the decision to have sex with a man seemed abrupt and lacking in context. I also felt that the film tried to say too much with wistful glances that ought to have been conveyed in dialogue. Recommended

Sonja, dir. Kirsi Marie Liimatainen, 2007 Germany 73 min., in German with English subtitles
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