“Shame has to change sides!” Asked the French woman Gisèle Pelicot 2024 when she made her spectacular rape case public in court. And it almost seems as if director Hille North (“Home Seeks Seele”) together with the protagonist of her autobiographical feature film “Smalltown Girl” are just the same thing: From the perspective of a supposed femme Fatale, psychological mechanisms hidden north and looks into the head of a abuse victim that strikes wildly instead of remaining in the sacrificial role. You can hear the quiet tones late, but then they roar all the louder.
A picture that is only at the very first look …
The men's tailor Nore (Dana Herfurth) knows no mediocrity. She drinks, celebrates and has as much sex as it fits her. When she meets Jonna (Luna Jordan) in her favorite bar, Nore is looking for the next overnight stay – sex is happy to be included. After a few beer in Jonna's apartment, Nore moves in with her and Jonna understands that the girl she still knows from the schoolyard has not changed so much: Even as a teenager, nore made around with adult men. Now she is in his mid-20s and lives an eccentric, chaotic life in supposedly full-time freedom.
She sleeps – when she wants, where she wants and with whom she wants. Sex is part of her life like hangover coffee the next morning. That is why you can see them birds primarily in all possible places. However, the nude scenes are never sexy, but look like a mechanical act. Pure. Out. There is the door. Once Jonna asks her what to do if you don't feel like it anymore. Nores answer: “Keep on.” Then Nore eats an apple with relish, smokes a cigarette and then showered away everything. Nore lives in false pragmatism that leaves no place for pain – because Nores world is an illusory world …
When the little girl's dream becomes a nightmare
The film language is so poppy-colored that it could also come from a 90s music video. The production design (Alina Dunker) and the costumes (Hanna Pulkkinen) are fluffy and tight. The clothes of Nore, played by “Call My Agent: Berlin” shooting star Dana Herfurth, almost only consists of colorful princess dresses-sometimes even with crowns. She practically lives a little girl dream Deluxe. Instead of “Sex and the City” freedom, a bad feeling arises when Jonna Nore emerge and sometimes tests a throw-away man-because you quickly understand that none of this is fun. Nore has blue spots that ignores her – and she only smiles because she can't cry.
She also does not pay attention to her own needs. Instead of having fun with sex, she indicates that new sex can heal inner pain. “I'm not a nore, I always feel like it,” she said so often that she is already addressed as “you are nore, you always feel like”. It goes without saying that Nores construct will not keep forever, but that makes the film no less exciting.
The fact that Nore (Dana Herfurth) moves into Jonna (Luna Jordan) may be another chance for her …
Director Hille North uses Nore as a projection figure for everything that happens to women. Dana Herfurth is as cold as nore as vulnerable. Only later does it understand how meaningful the question was that Nore initially asked Jonna: “What do we have to do with the children we were back then?” A lot. When Nore Jonna lets her emotional world, Hille Norden's story really gets fantastic features. With Jonna, Nore visits a teenage nore (Vera Fay) with her first friend (Campbell Caspary) with Jonna. Instead of showing the painful scene, you can only hear nore soft sobs.
The fact that even Jonna's friend Michel (Jakob Geßner) carries many ambivalences is human, but sometimes unappealing. Through him you can learn how men deal with victims of abuse. Hille north does not compromise in her second feature film. North does not continue to deal with the men with whom Nore sleeps. You only get to know them during sex, then they are passé again. They are not relevant to action, so north throws them out again. The dialogues are relentless and feel damn real. Not every conversation fits every fate of women, but someone almost always fits.
Conclusion: “Smalltown Girl” is “Sex and the City” in the Metoo robe. If you pull it out, the whole dirty, naked truth shows.
We saw “Smalltown Girl” at the Hamburg Film Festival 2025.