[Event Review] Final Girls Berlin - Part 3: Social Ills and Envy

SOCIAL ILLS

The Goldfish

The pastel-hued party scene of a babyshower is traditionally seen as a place of joy and festivities, a celebration of blooming maternity. But for some it is a relentless reminder of the unique traumas that motherhood carries. For horror, motherhood is a topic ripe to explore, and The Goldfish does so in a deeply personal, heartbreaking way.

After watching her pet goldfish eat its young, Audrey (a masterful performance from Diarra Kilpatrick) starts to internalize her anxiety about starting a family of her own. Her fears are magnified at her sister’s shower, where Audrey navigates racist microaggressions from guests, rude questions about her adoption and the constant bray of forced motherhood. In an attempt to come to terms with who she is and where she comes from,  she finds herself sympathizing with her aquatic friend more and more. 

Kwêskosîw: She Whistles

As the name suggests, the films featured in the Social Ills category took an unflinching gaze at some of the dangerous and disturbing issues faced by groups in our societies. She Whistles, a Canadian feature making its German debut at the festival, shone a luminous green light onto an issue that can no longer stay in the dark.

A heart-breaking tale of communal trauma and the infallible importance of folktale, She Whistles follows Stephanie (Sera-Lys McArthur), an Indigenous woman taking a seemingly safe cab ride which soon turns to something more sinister. As her life is endangered under the ever-watchful eye of the emerald Northern Lights, Stephanie recalls a revered Cree warning about whistling at the Aurora’s eerie glow.

Influences for the film were taken from director Thirza Cuthand’s own personal experience navigating aggressions as a non-binary Indigenous person, and true stories of terrifying taxi rides in Saskatchewan, where an alarming number of Indigenous women and girls are reported missing. She Whistles was a standout testimony to the importance of horror not only as entertainment, but also to raise awareness to issues that plague marginalized communities of women around the world.

Smile

Few places are scarier than the depths of a dark depression, more so when everyone in your life is waiting for a smile to come back on your face.

One of the most traditionally terrifying entries to the fest, Joanna Tsanis’ Smile, follows a young woman suffering. Dejected and miserable, she ignores calls of concern from her mother who yearns for a time when her daughter was happy. It seems everyone in her life wants her to smile – including the shadowy figure waiting in her bedroom.

Credited as ‘Moros’ (an ancient Greek deity of impending doom), the grinning ghoul brings a suitably unsettling and frightening end to one of the shortest films in the Social Ills block, and will have you thinking twice before going to bed in a bad mood.

ENVY

Girls Night In

Playing with the tired narrative of women fighting each other for the attention of a man, Girls Night In was born from the question: what’s the most ridiculous situation in which two women would tear each other down for some guy? 

With a script bursting with irreverent quips straight from your average sardonic zoomer Twitter thread, Alison Roberto’s tale of Bechdel failure was one of the funniest entries to the festival, and a highlight of the Envy block.

In two hilariously camp performances from Jess Adams and Skylar Benton, Becca and Delaney (Bec and Del…get it?) find themselves at the mercy of a hunky, ocean-eyed killer and find themselves wishing they were getting something more than an axe to the head. 

Hannya

Few feelings are more entrenched with dread than the realization that your partner might be looking at another with more than just fond friendship. Combine that with the uniquely frightening experience of meeting your partner’s close knit friendship group for the first time, and you’ve got an invite to an especially nightmarish house party.

Anyone familiar with Japanese mythology will have some inkling of Hannya’s themes. A Japanese demon of envy, Hannya symbology is usually used to denote a complex combination of feelings: dangerous, demonic but with a sense of deep yearning. Beautifully shot and drenched in atmosphere, Eva Muñoz’ 30 minute short presents these feelings through Ana (Anaïs Parello), a young Spanish woman uncomfortably on the edge of a Parisian gathering her boyfriend Mathieu (Mathieu Lourdel) brings her to. It’s immediately clear that Ana is The Other, due both to her unfamiliarity and nationality. Her words are misunderstood, her language is mocked and she fails to get to grips with the traditions of the group. When Mathieu’s friend Marie (Sophie du Fürst) shows up, she is exactly the opposite – outgoing, confident and possibly the true object of someone’s affection.

With queer overtones and an eye-watering ending, Hannya was a standout of Envy block, making its German debut proudly and received with rapturous delight by attendees.

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