July 2015
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65 Reads
Turning Seventeen // Watch here: https://vimeo.com/253582767 // Directors: Pavel Borecký, Petr Nuska, Agnieszka Suszko // Original title: Sedmnáct // Country: Czech Republic // Year of release: 2013 // Runtime: 11 minutes // Language: Czech // Subtitles: English // Projection format: HD // Festival screenings: *Echoes of Antropofest (Plzeň) 2013 *Ethnografilm (Paris) 2015 // Dominika lives with her grandmother in the small Czech town of Žlutice. We meet her at a family party on the day she turns 17. The next day, while she prepares herself for the usual Saturday trip to the disco, her grandma narrates the story of growing up and becoming a woman. The tension between being dependent and yearning for freedom is softened by close family ties and mutual care. Putting on make up and dressing up for the disco seem to be a rehearsal of independence and a theatrical expression of femininity and beauty.