Saulė Bliuvaitė
Toxic
Akiplėša
LT
2024, 99', lt
Age 16+

 

It could be the 2000s, or just as easily the present day. Amid warehouses, shabby shops, and gravel playgrounds, a modelling agency has found its place. For 13-year-old Kristina, the modelling school with its dubious reputation is a promise of a life somewhere else –  perhaps in Paris or Japan – and for that she is willing to starve herself, buy tapeworm eggs, submit her mental health to drastic routines. When she meets Maria, a slightly shy peer with a limp, a girl raised by her grandmother, they quickly become friends. Together, they make plans for how the upcoming casting would set them both on their independent path.

Seeking validation from others and running away from yourself. This is how Lithuanian director Bliuvaitė has described her feature debut, both narrative- and texture-wise based on her teenage memories when she wanted to be a model. An industrial landscape, turn of the millennium low-rise jeans, smoking spice through a plastic bottle, spiralling relationships with parents, and a big dream that puts unwanted pressure on both young girls. Unexpectedly, this visually polished coming-of-age drama is the perfect Catcher in the Rye in Baltic film and draws parallels with cult classic Kids (1995) by Larry Clark and Harmony Korine. This Golden Leopard winner at Locarno stars two cinegenic debutantes – model Vesta Matulytė and Ieva Rupeikaitė – whose chemistry is a rare big-screen occurrence.