Sarajevo Best Actress winner Eva Kostić captivates in this unflinching portrait of peer pressure and sexual shame by first time writer-director Kosara Mitić.
Plus IconBeatrice Loayza
See All
Courtesy of Berlinale From the first frame, Kosara Mitić’s “17” refuses to pull any punches, plunging us immediately into the traumatic moment when a hookup between high-school student Sara (Eva Kostić) and two boys takes a violent turn. From here, this nervy teen drama from Macedonia picks up several months later and follows the withdrawn Sara over the first two days of a class trip to Greece, where one of her assailants is among the unruly group of youngsters. Winner of the Best Actress prize at Sarajevo after premiering in the Berlinale’s Perspectives section, the film has a bleak, unflinching gaze that sometimes skims the edges of shock-value miserablism. In the end, however, Mitić’s intrepid approach is undeniably bracing, and held together at its core by Kostić’s simmering performance.
Related Stories
