January 7, 2026

Maybe it was the dimly lit style of photography or perhaps the elderly, bescarfed, ballet coach who could readily have been called “Madame Suzatska”, but I thought that this had the look of a communist-era Eastern European documentary to it as we follow the teenage Sonia Petrovna as she starts on her journey to physical maturity. It uses ballet lessons and some beautiful Chopin, amongst others, to illustrate the tensions of growing up, of passing… read the rest.

Maybe it was the dimly lit style of photography or perhaps the elderly, bescarfed, ballet coach who could readily have been called “Madame Suzatska”, but I thought that this had the look of a communist-era Eastern European documentary to it as we follow the teenage Sonia Petrovna as she starts on her journey to physical maturity. It uses ballet lessons and some beautiful Chopin, amongst others, to illustrate the tensions of growing up, of passing and failing, of striving and of making choices that might last a lifetime all whilst unsure whether she preferred to just browse the department stores or play with her kitten. There’s some noises-off style of dialogue, but for the most part there is just natural audio complementing the music and our observations of Sonia at play and at work. It doesn’t really try to establish or develop any characterisation for the girl, and at times I did feel a bit creepy watching like a fly on the wall, but there is some skill to see here and our own experiences of being that age helps to fill in the gaps.

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