Lily
2011 · 12m · España , Estados Unidos
Directed by Susana Casares
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
Eleven-year-old Lily, new to the neighbourhood and pushed by her mother and friends, is dragged to a pool in a new bikini where her puberty worries come true and she falls into the situation she most wanted to avoid.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a competent coming-of-age rite-of-passage, sure, but the premise is exactly what the premise promises—mortification at the pool, nothing subversive lurking underneath. Casares plays it straight when she could've twisted it.
A formally precise meditation on adolescent vulnerability that positions itself thoughtfully within the European art-house lineage of body-aware cinema; the restraint in editing and sound design honors the tradition while maintaining its own quiet dignity.
The genius move is the editing rhythm in the pool scene itself—Casares cuts just before the moment of full exposure, letting the audience's anxiety do the work instead of the image, and that single choice transforms a familiar scenario into something genuinely unsettling and real.