Kiss Chase
2022 · 14m · UK
Directed by Ebele Tate
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Eleven-year-old Nadine is left out of a schoolyard game of kiss chase and realises that, in this currency of attention, her value is low. Her quest to feminize herself and be seen leads to a formative, uncomfortable encounter.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Kiss Chase plays it almost too straight — a sincere coming-of-age film about female desirability that could've been a vessel for something weirder, but Tate's refusal to wink at the premise is maybe the most subversive move available to her.
The 4:3 frame and film stock situate this firmly in a lineage of intimate portraiture cinema, and Tate's careful composition — those isolating wides — recalls the formal restraint of Chloé Zhao's early work, though the emotional register remains stubbornly her own.
The camera's shift between probing closeup and isolating wide is the entire film's nervous system; it's the only presence that refuses to objectify Nadine even as everyone else in the schoolyard does, and that single formal choice transforms what could've been exploitation into something achingly protective.
Reviews
Quietly told with a keen eye and gentle touch.
Shines a light on the growing pressure young girls feel to be seen in the world, and notably by the opposite sex.
Festivals
- Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival 2022
- Atlanta Film Festival 2022
- Women X Film Festival 2022, Nominated — Best Cinematography, Best Film
- Pan African Film Festival 2022