GIRL POWER!

VALOA VALOA VALOA

2023 / 91 min / color

Spring of 1986. Most of the world is preoccupied with the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the specter of a nuclear catastrophe. But the most important event for Maria, the young protagonist of the film by talented director Inari Niemi, is moving to a small village in southern Finland. Especially when she meets 15-year-old Mimi. An attraction quickly develops between the two teenage girls, and they spend a passionate summer together in spite of the frightening circumstances, as radio loudspeakers repeatedly blurt out announcements about an impending catastrophe which could affect their fate. 20 years later, when Maria returns to the area to take care of her sick mother, memories of that summer come flooding back. With great sensitivity, Niemi constructs a story about coming of age in the shadow of overwhelming fear. She describes the power of sentiment and the beauty of youth, contrasting it with Maria’s adult life, in which there is far less of the titular light.