Directed by Bas Devos • Drama • With Cesar De Sutter, Koen De Sutter • 2014 • 83 minutes
A grand prize winner at the Berlin Film Festival, VIOLET tells the story of 15-year-old Jesse who bears witness to his best friend’s seemingly random murder at the mall. A carefully calibrated character study in the tradition of Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park, filmmaker Bas Devos’ meticulously calculated debut explores the process of coping in the midst of senseless violence. Shot partially on 8-perf 65mm film by acclaimed cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis (Bullhead, The Drop), VIOLET is constructed like a series of lush photographs; in each of the film’s compositions, there is a sophisticated mosaic of loss, the permanence of trauma and the tumult of youth.
Up Next in Teen Dreams
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Lore
Directed by Cate Shortland • Drama • With Saskia Rosendahl • 2013 • 108 minutes
Left to fend for themselves after their SS officer father and mother, staunch Nazi believers, are interred by the victorious Allies at the end of World War II, five German children undertake a harrowing journey that ...
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Rookies
Directed by Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai • Documentary • 2023 • 115 minutes
In the heart of Paris, a prestigious high school takes a daring bet: the integration of a group of talented hip-hop dancers from working-class neighborhoods and diverse backgrounds. ROOKIES follows the new studen...
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Polina
Directed by Valérie Müller & Angelin Preljocaj • Drama • With Juliette Binoche, Anastasia Shevtsova, Veronika Zhovnytska, Niels Schneider, Jer Em Ie Bel Ingard • 2017 • 108 minutes
Rigorously trained from an early age by a perfectionist instructor, Polina (played by Anastasia Shevtsova, a pr...
