Into The Night

When we meet Krysia (Agnieska Rajda), she's lying listlessly in a bath as the water spills over its edges. Her mum (Kamilla Baar) is doing her best to gee her up, get her outside, but even as she's taking her to a birthday party, her daughter is virtually supine on the reclined passenger seat.

But that, director Kamila Tarabura and writer Nina Lewandowska soon show us in this winner of the Live Action Short Award at Warsaw Film Festival, is just one of the many moods and energy states of being a teenager. When, on a whim, Krysia swipes the cash from the birthday card she's set to deliver and follows another girl, Majka (Nel Kaczmarek) out of the party house, things are about to get a whole lot more interesting as the pair embark from the afternoon and into the night with rebellion and freedom on their minds.

Key elements of many teenage lives are here - loneliness and the desire to fit in, underage drinking and hooking up with someone else, even if that's not a great idea, and friendship that can come from out of the blue. Lewandowska slots these elements into place snugly as the bond between Krysia and Majka begins to grow. Tarabura matches Krysia's energy step for step, with an unexpected lengthy twirl on a kids' roundabout shoved by Majka pushing the film into its more kinetic second half as Patrik Kin's cinematography propels us along with it. This film is all about the rush - the rush of spinning suddenly, the hormonal kick of an unexpected kiss, the pump of adrenaline from a dare you didn't think you'd take or the sudden energy you find to protect your friend. Rush and catch it if you can.