Kaunis Tyttö
2026 · 2m
Directed by Niilo Tarassenko, Charlotte Arberet
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
After being raped, Suzanne, sixteen, seeks to attain a dreamed femininity and purity; her conflictual relationship with her mother, from whom she takes inspiration, feeds her anxiety in the feminine world.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Two minutes to process trauma, maternal mirrors, and the wreckage of stolen girlhood—most scouts would flinch at the subject matter, but Tarassenko and Arberet refuse the cathartic redemption arc everyone expects, which is exactly why it bothers me in the best way.
A formally precise meditation on embodiment and inheritance that recalls the rigorous feminist cinema of the 1970s; the restraint in how it frames Suzanne's relationship to her mother's example demonstrates real curatorial intelligence about what *not* showing can achieve.
The choice to let the camera inhabit Suzanne's gaze without flinching—holding on her face as desire and damage coexist—is what makes this two-minute portrait of post-assault reclamation feel like something only these directors could have made.