Opening Night Gala: Dolls (Pusinky)

This debut feature from Babinská is a beautifully made and poignant coming of age tale about three best friends from high school embarking on their last summer together before going there separate ways at summer’s end. Iška has been forced to join her little brother Vojta at a summer camp for athletes, but whilst he can back flip and somersault like a pro the timid Iška can barely hold her own against a punch bag. When her two friends turn up, flirtatious Karolína and plain Vendular, to whisk her away on their agreed plan of hitchhiking to Holland for summer jobs there’s only one problem, Vojta insists on coming along. Before they even leave the camp tensions mount between the trio, with Karolína and Vendular competing for the attentions of a macho security guard and Iška looking on longingly at the pretty Karolína, her secret crush getting harder to conceal from her friend. Stubbornly carrying on with their plan to get to Holland the road trip begins to crumble when Vendular risks striking out on her own, only to be brutally attacked forcing her to rejoin the group. The affection Karolína was so eager to give Iška when it suited her purposes is callously taken away leaving the insecure Iška devastated, until love is found in an unlikely place. Teetering on the edge of adulthood, trying to discover and understand who she is, each young woman takes a step closer to growing up, and finding their place in the world.

For anyone who has harboured a secret love, remembers the agony and ecstasy of discovering their sexuality, and who had friends as a teenager you just couldn’t live without, Dolls is the perfect embodiment of that time, those feelings. A richly layered, slow-burning and ultimately uplifting film.
Emma Smart