Winning the Golden Leopard at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, Saulé Bliuvaité’s debut feature, Toxic, pieces together a tragic story built on personal experience as an aspiring model. Vesta Matulytė as Marija and Ieva Rupeikaitė as Kristina both give picture perfect performances as two 13 year old girls struggling to find a way out of their hopeless lives in a remote industrial town.
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The film highlights fairly obvious observations on child modelling: these girls are being sold a dream which they cannot afford. They have to pay a nondescript modelling agency large sums of money just for the chance to be considered and compared to other girls. But if they’re lucky, and beautiful enough, they just might find themselves on the glamorous catwalks of Paris or Japan.
Marija and Kristina manoeuvre this life at the same pace but follow very different paths. Marija, naturally more reserved, is hesitant to throw herself into the modelling world, but Kristina, desperate for approval falls into the all too familiar modelling horror stories of eating disorders, tapeworm tablets and sexual exploitation.
Marija and Kristina manoeuvre this life at the same pace but follow very different paths. Marija, naturally more reserved, is hesitant to throw herself into the modelling world, but Kristina, desperate for approval falls into the all too familiar modelling horror stories of eating disorders, tapeworm tablets and sexual exploitation.As the film gets ever more sinister, the girl’s bond grows closer. There is no doubt that the subject matter is a tough pill to swallow but there is a warmth to be found when watching Toxic.
Not only is the cinematography beautifully complimentary to the story being told, but it compliments the characters outlook on life.Whether playing basketball in a wasteland, or drinking vodka next to an abandoned factory, there is a youthful charm to the life these girls live. The film has a nostalgic tone, one which I think would resonate with most anyone who grew up in a nowhere town, dreaming of something more.
The end scene when the girls are playing basketball with their friends, which mirrors the opening credits sequence, is a charming but ultimately dark juxtaposition. I think the cruelest realisation after watching Toxic is ruminating about what has been left unsaid. Returning to their typical childhood escapism is nice to see, but we the audience are left knowing that these girls have faced unspeakable trauma: a trauma that is very real for many people.
Article originally published 11/11/2024 on Screensphere and can be found here.
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