There’s a particular kind of intensity to being a teen (or almost one) that you don’t feel at any other point in life. Caught between childhood and adulthood, it’s a time when hormones are raging, bodies are changing and every feeling is felt with the intensity of a near-death experience. It’s what makes this time of life so ripe for storytelling.
Coming-of-age movies have been a fixture since the early days of cinema, although more often than not the focus has been on boys. While there are certainly many excellent films about boyhood, it’s refreshing to see more and more movies from around the world exploring the very specific pain and pleasure of growing up as a girl.
Blending universal rites of passage and diverse cultural nuances, these wondrous movies from SBS On Demand’s build a rich and vital picture of girlhood on screen.
Sweet As
Sweet As is the 2022 debut feature film of writer/director Jub Clerc, a Nyulnyul and Yawuru woman who drew on her own experiences as a teen to tell the story of Murra (Shantae Barnes-Cowan), a 15-year-old Indigenous girl who lives in the Pilbara and has a difficult home life. When she’s taken on a “photo safari” youth retreat with three other troubled teens, she discovers a life-changing love of photography — as well as some surprising connections. The beauty and danger of remote Australia, stunningly captured here, provide the perfect backdrop for exploring the beauty and danger inherent in coming of age.
Sweet As is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Sweet As
drama • 2022
drama • 2022
Puberty Blues
Bruce Beresford’s Puberty Blues, relesed in 1981, is an Australian classic, very of its time and yet so central to the canon of Australian coming-of-age stories. So many aspects feel alarmingly relevant, even today. Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey co-wrote the novel the movie is based on when they were just teens themselves, heavily inspired by their own experiences, and the resulting rawness of the story is one of the reasons it endures. Nell Schofield and Jad Capelja feel true-to-life as Debbie and Sue, two teens growing up in the Sutherland Shire in New South Wales who attempt to join the “in” surfer crowd and discover a world of sex, drugs, and misogyny along the way. It’s worth watching for the iconic old-school Aussie dialogue alone.
Puberty Blues is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Puberty Blues
Comedy drama • 1981
Comedy drama • 1981
Tiger Stripes
Body horror is certainly an appropriate framework for exploring periods and puberty from a girl’s perspective, and Tiger Stripes’ use of Malaysian folklore, plus its unflinching take on its bloody subject matter, offer a fresh entry into the genre. Writer-director Amanda Nell Eu’s debut tells the story of Zaffan, an 11-year-old girl who is the first amongst her peers to get her period and whose body undergoes even more radical (and supernatural) changes as she becomes increasingly alienated and isolated. The young lead, Zafreen Zairizal, effectively takes her character from carefree and playful tween to rage-filled monster with a swiftness that is relatable to anyone who has been a teen girl.
Tiger Stripes is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Tiger Stripes
horror • 2023
horror • 2023
Prayers for the Stolen
Written and directed by Tatiana Huezo and based on the novel of the same name by Jennifer Clements, Prayers for the Stolen is a moving and harrowing tale centred on Ana (Ana Cristina Ordóñez González) and her friends Maria (Blanca Itzel Pérez) and Paula (Camila Gaal), three girls growing up in a rural Mexican village where the threat of being kidnapped by the local drug cartel is an ever-present and oppressive background noise in their lives. The horrifying circumstances make the universality of the intense central female friendship all the more palpable.
Prayers for the Stolen is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Prayers for the Stolen
drama • 2021
drama • 2021
Whale Rider
This 2002 Kiwi classic saw 13-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes become the youngest nominee for Best Actress at the time for her role as Paikea Apirana, a young Māori girl who dreams of becoming the leader of her tribe — a position reserved for first-born boys and stringently guarded by the current leader, her grandfather Koro, played by Rawiri Paratene. It’s a powerful tale of fighting the odds, but also an intimate and moving exploration of Pai’s connection to her grandfather.
Whale Rider is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Whale Rider
children • drama • 2002
children • drama • 2002
Girls Will Be Girls
Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) is under enormous pressure to be perfect as her school’s first female Head Prefect, making her rebellious relationship with newcomer Srinivas (Kesav Binoy Kiron) all the more tantalising — and all the more complicated when her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti) gets involved.
Indian writer-director Shuchi Talati’s feature length debut features classic coming-of-age tropes — the boarding school, the overprotective mother, the new boy-turned-love interest — but its exploration of burgeoning female sexuality and identity nevertheless feels revelatory, helped along by powerful lead performances which Talati gives plenty of space to breathe.
Girls Will Be Girls is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Girls Will Be Girls
Comedy drama • romance • 2024
Comedy drama • romance • 2024
Scrapper
Scrapper is another feature debut, this time from British writer-director Charlotte Regan. Released in 2023, it stars a pre-Babygirl Harris Dickinson and fiery youngster Lola Campbell; they bounce off each other beautifully as a father and daughter getting to know each other for the first time in the wake of the death of the girl’s mother. The particular grief of losing one’s mother on the cusp of puberty is movingly explored, but it’s the spikiness and ultimate warmth of the father/daughter relationship that is the true heart of the movie.
Scrapper is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Scrapper
Comedy drama • 2023
Comedy drama • 2023
Neneh Superstar
With its seemingly almost primal appeal to young girls, the world of ballet is ripe for coming-of-age drama, and this 2022 French film is a welcome example. Written and directed by Ramzi Ben Sliman, it follows 12-year-old Neneh (Oumy Bruni Garrel), a young Black girl whose dreams of becoming a ballerina at the Paris Opera Ballet School are undercut by the overbearing whiteness of the institution and the people in power who uphold the oppressive status quo. It’s both joyful and heart-wrenching, with an imperfect protagonist who is just the kind of complicated girl we need to see more of on screen.
Neneh Superstar is streaming at SBS On Demand.
Stream free On Demand
Neneh Superstar
Comedy drama • 2022
Comedy drama • 2022
Dive into the depths of self discovery with the of films, celebrating the the journey of growing up.
