Cocoon

It’s summer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, and it’s hot! Towing along with her older sister Jule, Nora is a silent observer hanging out around the Kottbusser Tor underground station, at the outdoor public pool, on urban rooftops, and at parties. She is like a butterfly still in a cocoon, no longer really a caterpillar but not yet free of the husk – just like the ones she keeps in a box. When she starts menstruating for her first time during physical education class, she flees in panic to the girl’s room. There, she meets her saviour, the slightly older and tougher Romy. Romy not only pragmatically washes out her jeans, but offers her a joint to help against the cramps – and also awakens a whole new emotional world in her: as Nora later says to her hardened sex education teacher with cautiously chosen words, she actually finds girls more beautiful than boys. With almost documentary-like visuals, on-the-spot everyday language, and a fine-tuned eye for depicting realities of life and age-related issues, director Leonie Krippendorff narrates a tenderly romantic coming-of-age and coming-out story in one. And at the end, the butterfly flies.