Ellas
2015 · 20m · Costa Rica
Directed by Andrés Francisco Chaves
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Two schoolgirls are in a loving relationship that is affected by the people around them, leading to events that break both the relationship and their lives.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's competent indie LGBTQ+ melodrama, but there's nothing here that subverts the form—just two girls suffering prettily while the world closes in, which is exactly what you'd expect from a film playing it straight.
Chaves works within the coming-of-age tradition with formal restraint, letting tender moments breathe between scenes of social pressure; the melancholic tone and measured pacing locate it firmly in the lineage of intimate relationship dramas that privilege observation over spectacle.
The film hinges on a single tonal choice: letting silence and stillness do the emotional work instead of reaching for score or dialogue, which turns what could've been a predictable narrative into something genuinely aching and specific to these two people.