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Director's Statement
"GIRL PICTURE is a film about the need to be seen. 17–18-year-old Mimmi, Emma and Rönkkö are girls at what I call a liminal age: right at the cusp of womanhood, fluctuating between childhood and adulthood. At this age, the gaze of another person feels like a superpower – it can define, strengthen or change one’s self image in an instant. Closeness with the other is very inviting; it hooks us. And then suddenly, an overwhelming realisation takes over: how to be close to another person, if you’re only just drawing your own contours?
The story follows the girls on three consecutive Fridays, during which Mimmi and Emma experience the earth moving impact of falling in love, while Rönkkö goes on a quest for something she hasn’t yet experienced: pleasure. The condensed timeframe means it’s a fragment of their lives. But because teenagers’ lives are so amplified, and every moment counts for everything, a fragment may very well encapsulate a whole universe.
Of the film’s many themes the one that became the most important for me, is the understatedly radical freedom of these girls. Mimmi, Emma and Rönkkö get to explore their identities and sexuality on their own terms, without any outside threats. They are not punished for desiring. They don’t end up in danger. They don’t get warned, belittled, shamed or patronised. In that sense, this is perhaps more a film about the world we aspire for, than the world we live in. And that’s why GIRL PICTURE invites us not only to look at girls, but to really see them.
Alli Haapasalo | June 2022"