Following her debut fiction feature, Jolla, and two documentaries, Smalltown Girl is the fourth feature by Kiel-based filmmaker and actress Hille Norden. Her screenplay for Smalltown Girl was shortlisted for the German Script Award in 2022. The drama about freedom, friendship and female vulnerability has premiered at Filmfest Hamburg.

Nore (Dana Herfurth) and Jonna (Luna Jordan) are two single women in their twenties when they reunite in a trendy bar. Jonna is fascinated by Nore, a self-confident and vivacious woman who likes to hit the town in brightly coloured, sexy outfits she has sewn herself, and remembers their school days together when Nore was notorious as a precocious femme fatale. Nore continues to throw herself headfirst into a life of pleasure. When she moves into Jonna's apartment, she brings her wild lifestyle with her: alcohol, lots of cigarettes and a steady stream of men, whom they share like siblings. But Jonna senses that her friend is not doing so well amidst her endless cycle of alcohol and sex, and is in danger of sinking deeper into the abyss. She begins to search for the reasons why. In the process, the two friends dive deeper and deeper into Nore's vulnerable and traumatic childhood experiences.

While the first act is one wild party trip, over the course of the film, this develops into a painful examination of Nore's past, in which she was the victim of sexual assault as a girl. Her experiences of abuse and violence cast a dark shadow over her soul. She vigorously tries to fuck the hurt out of her body and now uses her male companions as sexual objects. The film retreads the Lolita theme, which caused a scandal following the publication of Vladimir Nabokov's famous novel of the same name, but which has also entered the upper echelons of world literature and was brought to the big screen by Adrian Lyne. Hille Norden's film, with its two women leads, makes it clear that sex with a female child, no matter how seductively she may behave, is a clear violation of boundaries and constitutes abuse of minors.

Smalltown Girl is anything but a straightforward three-act drama with dramatic twists and a redeeming happy ending. Instead, the movie constantly jumps back and forth between different levels, mixing the present and the past as well as real events and emotional inner lives. The exchange between the two friends thus becomes a form of talking therapy and a way to cope with trauma.

This drama about freedom and female sexuality captivates with its expressive visuals, with the camera, lighting, costumes and set design delivering a rich visual experience. The two leads, Herfurth (the series Call My Agent: Berlin) and Jordan (the series Euphoria), are convincing and believable in their roles.

Smalltown Girl is a production by Hamburg-based Leitwolf Filmproduktion and Bremen-based Kinescope Film, with ZDF/Das Kleine Fernsehspiel also on board.