‘Stop-Zemlia’ Film Review: Ukrainian Teens Stumble Toward Adulthood in Tender Coming-of-Age Story
20.01.2022 - 02:37
/ thewrap.com
st century, even the people sharing the gossip acknowledge both how retrograde such speculation is, and how much about all of their lives feels fluid, including sexuality and identity. Their emotions, desires, anxieties, and perspectives shift not only from day to day but often minute to minute.
They are self-aware enough to realize that they’ve yet to fully form, while actively observing their own growth in real time. (The title refers to a playground game of dares that pulls the students both forwards and backwards.)This is the first narrative feature from writer-director Gornostai, who began her career in documentaries.
Her nonfiction background proves to be an asset manifest in ways both small and large. Thoughtful interstitial interviews with several of the teens feel fully real, and add depth to the more familiar scenes of them flirting or drinking or texting.
It helps, too, that the young actors are so comfortable in their roles, perhaps partly as the result of an immersive, months-long preparation process.Gornostai’s strengths are also evident in her recreations of adolescent egoism. Aside from the formal interviews, there is nothing at all that matters outside of any given moment, whether it’s at a frenetic school dance, or a droningly dull science class, or an anxiety-provoking, bond-building house party.Cinematographer Oleksandr Roshchyn is particularly adept at establishing the naturalistic moods — simultaneously consequential and quicksilver — that Gornostai intends, his camera lingering on settings adults might skim right past.
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