Sunburned

Bored younger sister on a sunny vacation meets a beach vendor of the same age from Senegal in the Swedish Carolina Hellsgård’s existential portrayal of summer holidays and becoming an adult.

They are three German tourists in Spain. The mother Sophie, 15-year-old Zoe and 13-year-old Claire, who are going to a dance course and hanging out with their older sister at the shoreline. Everything is hot and ambiguous. But when Claire buys a necklace from Amram who is of the same age, something much bigger and unsettling real beings. Following her feature film debut Wanja (GFF, 2016) and the apocalyptic Endzeit – Ever After (GFF, 2019), the Berlin-based Carolina Hellsgård develops her moving visual narration into a thought-provoking film about adventure and youthful love in a hard-to-handle, unequal situation.

• Jonas Holmberg