Kokon (2020)

Kokon: Directed by Leonie Krippendorff. With Lena Urzendowsky, Jella Haase, Lena Klenke, Elina Vildanova. Berlin-Kreuzberg is Nora’s microcosm. Nora, the silent observer, is always tagging along: At parties, at school, at the pool, on rooftops and in apartments. Nora drifts around the monotonous housing blocks with her big sister and her friends, witnessing events that seem to cross-fade in the summer light. Girls who want to be slim and pretty, boys who say dumb things to provoke or because they are in love. Ruthless smartphone cameras and fragile teenagers. But Nora has her own way of looking at the world, and when she meets Romy, she realizes why. There is music in the air, Nora’s body is changing, and caterpillars are spinning their cocoons. Realistic and taking on the protagonist’s perspective, this film captures a summer of change.

“On a young teenage girl developing from the egg and catterpillar stage, then transform into a hard shell pupae of grief, till she wakes up and spreading her wings of beauty and opportunity in a life-tranformation called puberty. Its a film about angst, gender identity, sex, nudity ,fumbling , experimenting, drugs, alcohol and most of all which is the sadest part, a mothers neglect of her children. Its summer hot berlin im sommer urlaub, its urban life in urban apartments with strikingly realistic urban children, in a film thats made in such european/german style that ill bet youll never find such a plot in american moviemaking. There are some flaws and floskls here and there, but the director has been able to make a film that makes your butterfly tingle in your guts, even in an old and grumpy man as me, therefore a little recommend on this one.”