Right from the opening shots of Fantasy, the feature debut by Slovenian musician and filmmaker Kukla, premiering in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present competition, the first association will become very apparent: French filmmaker Céline Sciamma and her earlier to mid-career works like Tomboy [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Céline Sciamma
scheda film] and Girlhood [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Céline Sciamma
intervista: Céline Sciamma
scheda film]. It might not be a deliberate reference, but rather a product of the simple fact that coming of age takes longer than it used to and that it is never easy, especially for young women in a world structured to follow certain patriarchal traditions. The resemblance between the Parisian banlieu and the housing-estate buildings on the outskirts of Ljubljana does not go unnoticed either.

The story follows three “besties” in their early twenties who, at the start, all sport a uniform, tomboy attitude and speak the same local dialect that mixes Slovenian with other southern Slavic languages, but there are some differences between them to be observed. Sina (Mina Milovanović) is into sports, especially boxing, and wants to embark on a career as a coach. Jasna (Mia Skrbinac) is the most ambitious of the gang: she stays quiet and wants to keep the group together, but she also dreams of making something of her life elsewhere. Mihrije (Sarah Al Saleh) seems like the youngest one, and her primary goal is to avoid getting married to a man whom she does not know and who would be chosen by her parents. They are all of foreign ancestry and have to endure both the patriarchal rules of their neighbourhood and the low-key, systemic racism from Slovenian civil servants.

Their individual lives change once they meet a seemingly liberated, even slightly unhinged, transgender woman named Fantasy (Alina Juhart), to whom they all react differently. Mihrije falls for her hard – so hard that she even runs away from home to follow her on a trip to North Macedonia, where Fantasy has to introduce herself under her male given name, Filip. While the two are away, Sina falls for her married coach, Boris (Denis Porčič), and starts exploring her more feminine side, and Jasna decides to leave her passive-aggressive mother (Silvija Jovanović) behind and find work abroad. Can their friendship withstand such temptations?

Kukla’s screenwriting might seem classical, so a certain drop in tempo occurs in the second act, as expected, but she manages to accomplish the primary task she gave herself: she effectively implants us in the minds of young women on the brink of adulthood, creating a sense of empathy for the troubles her characters are dealing with, and she does so with style.

The slight movements in Lazar Bogdanović’s camerawork, paired with Lukas Miheljak’s rhythmic editing, Relja Čupić’s moody electronic score and Julij Zornik’s perfectly calibrated sound design, create a unique, dream-like atmosphere. Kukla’s directing style, especially when introducing lengthy sequences that resemble music videos of a peculiar genre (vocoder-heavy trap
mixed with “turbofolk” from the Balkans), might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but bearing her background in such music in mind, it’s to be expected that the filmmaker would also manage to capture the vibe of this world.

Kukla’s work with the largely non-professional actors is one of Fantasy’s strong points, as they dive deep into their characters and convey their every state and emotion compellingly and with conviction. This should not come as a surprise, since Kukla already “tested” them all in her award-winning short Sisters (2020). But with Fantasy, she manages to achieve a rare feat: to expand a short movie into an even more impressive feature.

Fantasy is a Slovenian-Macedonian co-production, staged by December in co-production with Krug Film, Gliser and RTV Slovenia. Totem handles the international sales.