TWINNI International Feature Competition

Director Ulrike Schweiger beautifully captures the aching awkwardness of adolescence with humor, honesty and the accomplished-beyond-her-years performance of young Diana Latzka as a 13-year-old whose world is turned upside down by her parents’ divorce.

When the divorce forces her to move from Vienna to her grandmother’s house in the country, Jana is as torn as the film’s titular two-toned Popsicle. She longs for contact with the father who abandoned them and lashes out at her mother, whom she blames for the split. A big city fish in a small town, Jana seeks acceptance by joining the church but is ridiculed when she asks to join the all-male ranks of alter-servers. Too shy to respond to a classmate’s letter professing his interest, she is betrayed by a jealous friend.

TWINNI is a feature debut of simple beauty and quiet intensity with an empowering, resonating message of self-reliance.