Smalltown Girl

Nore and Jonna, who knew each other in school, meet again in their mid-twenties in a bar. Nore lives out her sexuality with confidence, which Jonna finds as fascinating as it is bewildering. Their friendship is a cocktail of past stories, old rumours, and new freedoms. Nore moves in with Jonna, and as their friendship grows they get caught up in a maelstrom of night-time parties and male visitors. But Nore's dazzling façade is hiding something, and Jonna decides to get to the bottom of her friend's behaviour. Together, they embark on a journey into the past and into the traumas that Nore has experienced, in search of a shared path into the future. In her feature-film debut, the Kiel director Hille Norden confronts the topic of sexual self-determination, abuse and liberation in a relentlessly open and assertive manner. Thanks to the unconventional dramaturgy, the film and its protagonists remain free of formulaic victim narratives.