Little Trouble Girls

If one was to describe exactly the plot of Little Trouble Girls, it would be deprived of its significance, its sense of mystery dearly. Essentially, it is a coming of age, centered on Lucia, a teenager who during a parish choir's retreat in an italian monastery has an awakening.

Opening on a fresco from a church with an abstract motif, that however resembles the shape of a human part, this shot sums up well the dual nature of the experiences of the protagonist. What Little Trouble Girls describes is clearly a sexual awakening, in which Lucia explores intimacy, her own bodily desires, her attractions. Yet, as the name of the lead girls of the film suggest, Lucia and Ana-Maria, both with a sort of symbolic religious connotation, there is a side of the storyline deeply linked to catholicism, a sort of spiritual experience undertaken by the protagonist. This duality becomes one flesh, one religious-sexual awakening both outrageous and pious, both elevated and carnal. 

This unconformism of the plot is embodied by Lucia, a nonconformist herself. The choir, an environment whose members are required to be part of a larger one, does not suit her, in fact it ends up repudiating her as an organisation. Being a parish choir in a slovenian society depicted as very catholic, the choir is a metaphor, in fact an incarnation of the religious institution. Her experiences echo that of many non-heteronormative people who grew up in a religious context with a sincere form of faith and find themselves betrayed. 

Little Trouble Girls' solution isn't that of a complete rejection of the religious experience, but rather its internalisation, its spirituality blossoming afar from institutions. Lucia's spiritual-sexual awakening is comparable to the experiences of the nun Benedetta Carlini, whose life was loosely adapted in an extremely watered down film by Paul Verhoeven, and in whose interpretation of faith sexual freedom and spiritual communion were compatible.

Urška Djukić's film allows to be open to interpretation on a larger scale, while being a rather small scoped film: seldom we see beyond the close-ups of the characters, little is shown of the environment in the pretty town of Cividale del Friuli that serves as a backdrop, but in its rather minimalist scope, it still allows the space for an universe of meaning.

Little Trouble Girls is not only an impressive debut film, it is also one of the most unique coming-of-age films of the last years, that has successfully unlocked a unique way to tackle the vastness of teenage awakening.

5/5

Original title:  Kaj ti je deklica

Directed by: Urška Djukić

Country: Slovenia / Italy

Year: 2025

Length: 88 min.

Premiere: Berlinale 2025