Teenage girls immersed in the world of competitive equestrian vaulting are drawn to each other as friends and rivals in this sexually charged drama of adolescent power play. Best Film Award, Tribeca Film Festival 2011.
This audacious debut took top honours at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2011
She Monkeys 2011
Apflickorna
Immersed in the world of competitive equestrian vaulting, introverted striver Emma and cool, self-assured Cassandra find themselves drawn to each other, first as friends, then as rivals. Meanwhile, Emma’s eight-year-old sister tests out her own understanding of attraction and power as she attempts to seduce her alarmed teenage babysitter. Incisive direction and unwavering performances by a non-professional cast lend startling force and psychological exactness to this raw, sexually charged drama of adolescent power play and small-town emotional austerity. — BG
“One of the most intense and complex feature debuts to come from Sweden since Lukas Moodysson’s Fucking Åmål, director Lisa Aschan thrillingly subverts the coming-of-age genre, political correctness, gender roles and (without ever becoming graphic) just about everything to do with the depiction of developing sexuality in the taboo-breaking She Monkeys.” — Alissa Simon, Variety