Little Trouble Girls, the debut feature from Slovenian director Urška Djukić, to be released by BFI Distribution
A tender portrayal of the sexual awakening of a young chorister, Little Trouble Girls will be in cinemas in the UK and Ireland from 29 August.
Little Trouble Girls – the debut feature from Slovenian director Urška Djukić, which premiered as the opening film of the inaugural Perspectives competition, highlighting new filmmakers, at this year’s Berlinale – will be released in UK and Irish cinemas on 29 August 2025 by BFI Distribution. A BFI Player exclusive release will follow on 13 October 2025.
Co-written by Urška Djukić and Maria Bohr, with its title inspired by the iconic 1995 song ‘Little Trouble Girl’ by Sonic Youth, the film is a tender portrayal, sensuously shot and beautifully scored, of the sexual awakening of a young chorister.
Introverted 16-year-old Lucia (Jara Sofija Ostan) joins her Catholic school’s all-girls choir, where she befriends Ana-Maria (Mina Švajger), a popular and flirty third-year student. But when the choir travels to a countryside convent for a weekend of intensive rehearsals, Lucia’s interest in a dark-eyed restoration worker tests her friendship with Ana-Maria and the other girls. As she navigates unfamiliar surroundings and her budding sexuality, Lucia begins to question her beliefs and values, disrupting the harmony within the choir.
“With Little Trouble Girls, I wanted to explore the mysteries of the senses as tools for understanding ourselves. I think the long-standing taboo around sexuality has left us still unable to fully understand or harness its potential power. The body has its own instinctive intelligence, guiding us if we listen carefully. The concept of sinful sexuality and the lack of education around it is a clever mechanism to disconnect individuals from their inner source of power,” says Djukić.
Djukić’s most recent short film, Granny’s Sexual Life, won over 50 awards, including the European Film Academy Award for best short film in 2022 and the 2023 César Award for best animated short film. Previous short films by Djukić also include The Right One, part of the omnibus film SEE Factory Sarajevo mon amour that premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2019. In 2019, Djukić participated in the 39th edition of the Cannes Cinéfondation Residency, where she developed Little Trouble Girls, which was later awarded the best work-in-progress project at the Les Arcs Film Festival in December 2023.
Little Trouble Girls is produced by Slovenia’s SPOK Films, co-produced with Staragara It (Italy), 365 Films (Croatia) Non-Aligned Films (Serbia), Nosorogi (Slovenia) and OINK (Slovenia) in association with Sister Production (France). The producers are Jožko Rutar and Miha Černec.