Painting a bold picture of contemporary romance for girls of high school age, Finnish director Alli Haapasalo and her cast bring buckets of energy to Girl Picture (Tytöt tytöt tytöt), a film that distinguishes itself chiefly in its fine delineation of the main characters and its frank, convincing depiction of two girls who fall deeply in love. A third girl who fears she’s frigid searches instead for pleasure with a series of boys.
It’s hard to fault the breezy, liberated feminist perspective of this romantic drama, scripted by Ilona Ahti and Daniela Hakulinen, though one could wish for fewer genre cliches and more technical innovation. Making its bow in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition, where it looked a bit too youthful, Girl Picture is next headed to Berlin’s Generation 14plus to face more age-appropriate audiences in their mid to late teens.
Bouncy Rönkkö (Eleonoora Kauhanen) with her curly blond hair is best friends with the more complex and aggressive Mimmi (Aamu Milonoff), and they touchingly protect each other through thick and thin. Both are searching for something: Rönkkö for the sexual pleasure she has never experienced with boys, Mimmi for the love she felt was snatched away from her when her mother remarried and had another child. We see Mimmi getting into a fight at a school hockey game and being comforted by Rönkkö, but mostly we see the two girls working (after school?) blending smoothies in a shopping center. Their class is only glancingly touched on when they’re invited to a party “in the suburbs” of the city, implying middle class wealth they’re not part of.
In any case, Mimmi appears to live by herself in a luminous apartment with a harbor view (paid for by her absent mother?) While she and Rönkkö try on clothes for the party, she casually asks her friend if her inability to enjoy sex could be because she really likes girls. Rönkkö, however, is sure she’s heterosexual and at the party she makes a beeline for the best-looking guy in the room. In her nervousness she starts a conversation about the sort of glasses used to collect sperm samples, which might be a funny line in Finnish, but falls pretty flat in translation. The cute boy apparently agrees and hurries away. Kauhanen plays this very likable, warm-hearted character with a complete lack of inhibition, which gets her into one embarrassing situation after another.
Back at the party, meanwhile, Mimmi wanders into a room where Emma (Linnea Leino) is brooding over her phone. She’s watching her unsatisfying performance taking a fall while figure skating – her passion. With great charm and sensitivity, Mimmi breaks down the wall of discipline Emma has erected over the years to pursue her dream of reaching the European championships. From their first kiss to the first time they go to bed, the scenes are tinged with magical romanticism. But this breach of training makes Emma lose her head and puts her future as a figure skating champion in danger, calling for Mimmi to make a great sacrifice.
Haapasalo studied film at NYU and there is a familiar smoothness to the storytelling that recalls American taste. She was one of seven directors who contributed to the award-winning omnibus film Force of Habit, dealing with hidden aspects of women’s lives. The best thing about Girl Picture is its effortless empathy for all three of its female protagonists, played with contagious enthusiasm and individualism by Milonoff, Kauhanen and Leino.
Director: Alli Haapasalo
Screenplay: Ilona Ahti, Daniela Hakulinen
Cast: Aamu Milonoff, Eleonoora Kauhanen, Linnea Leino, Sonya Lindfors, Cécile Orblin, Oona Airola, Mikko Kauppila
Producers: Leila Lyytikäinen, Elina Pohjola
Cinematography: Jarmo Kiuru
Production design: Laura Haapakangas
Costume design: Roosa Marttiini
Editing: Samu Heikkilä
Sound editor: Anne Tolkkinen
Music supervisor: Jan Forsström
Production company: Citizen Jane Productions (Finland)
World sales: LevelK (Denmark)
Venue: Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Dramatic Competition)
In Finnish, French
100 minutes
