Seventeen

Somewhere in Lower Austria; the school term is drawing to a close and the summer holidays are not far off. Boarding school pupil Paula, seventeen, is secretly in love with her girlfriend Charlotte. But Charlotte’s going out with Michael. Lovelorn, Paula decides to try and take her mind of things by getting involved with schoolmate Tim, whose feelings for her are at least genuine. Paula has no idea how often Charlotte thinks of her. And then there’s Lilli, who is just dying for someone to fancy her and tries to play the wild seductress. Paula must decide if she wants to follow her own feelings or yield to other people’s.

Lanzenkirchen, mon amour: in her debut as a director Monja Art portrays teenage life and love in the sticks as a roller coaster ride of the emotions in a collection of amorous mini-dramas. Caught between dull days at school and dissolute nights at the village disco, Paula and her friends are like any normal teenagers: wonderfully know-it-all time bombs ticking away on the brink of adulthood, by which time they may just about have their heads on straight. But for now their greatest fear is having to stick around in this dump of a backwater. Outside, the strains of a brass band can be heard, a combine harvester does its rounds and, if you’re lucky, a bus might come.