Horst_In_Translation Review of Siebzehn

Siebzehn (2017)

You take a deep breath and you walk through the doors

[6/10 · 21 October 2017]

"Siebzehn" or "Seventeen" is a new Austrian movie that hit cinemas in spring this year and it quickly turned into the most known work by writer and director Monja Art as this one here is even an award-winning film already. It runs for 100 minutes approximately and is mostly defined by the portrayal of the main character by Elisabeth Wabitsch, definitely one to watch from what we see here. She plays a 17-year-old girl/woman who is really good at school and who explores her sexuality for the first time realizing women are definitely more interesting to her than men. Now that is a problem as her male fellow students and even a teacher keep falling for her, but the girl she desires seems worlds away. I enjoyed the watch here a lot from start to finish and while Austria keeps coming up with really good and really dark comedies on a regular basis, here we also have an example of a coming-of-age drama about sexuality that is working really well and you keep wondering what is going to happen next, which is always a good sign. And this statement comes from somebody who may be a heterosexual male, but also somebody who has seen really many films about same-sex relationships and many of them got harsh criticisms from me as they were very bad. But this one here is not bad at all. It feels realistic most of the time and all the production values are on a level where I would say that this work really deserved a big-screen release and I would't be surprised if it gets some more awards recognition in the coming months, maybe at the Austrian Film Awards. Also it makes me curious about future works by Art as the name seems to be true here. She's still relatively young and we may be in for some more quality movies hopefully in the coming years, if not decades. I give 17 a thumbs-up of course. Positively surprised here and the film is evidence that a good story is more important than big names in the cast. Go see it.