Little Trouble Girls 2025 Parents Guide

Little Trouble Girls Movie is not rated because it has not undergone the official rating process by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA).

Little Trouble Girls Movie Review

Urška Djukić’s debut feature Little Trouble Girls (Kaj ti je Deklica) opens in total darkness. For a moment, the only thing we’re given is the sound of breath raw, bodily, and grounding before the film unfurls. It’s an intimate entry point into the world of 16-year-old Lucia (Jara Sofija Ostan), the character whose inner life we’ll be tracing. Sound is a vital texture here, and Djukić leans heavily on it music in particular becomes a guiding force, swelling with emotional power that often outpaces the narrative, reaching crescendos of ecstasy and dread that the story itself never quite matches.

Lucia joins her all-girls choir on a countryside summer trip, where she meets Ana-Maria (Mina Švajger), a confident, magnetic older student who quickly draws her in. Djukić resists clean labels for what blossoms between them are Lucia’s feelings rooted in desire, admiration, or both? but that ambiguity feels purposeful, a tender reflection of her sexual and emotional awakening. Their physical connection, when it happens, is fleeting but leaves a deep mark, reverberating across the film and anchoring Lucia’s journey.

That awakening, however, is hardly without friction. Lucia’s exploration of desire clashes with her Catholic upbringing, her guilt seeping into choir rehearsals that begin to unravel. The tension culminates in a riveting confrontation with the stern conductor (Saša Tabaković), one of the film’s standout moments a sharp, emotionally charged exchange that showcases both Djukić’s writing and the sheer intensity of Ostan’s performance. These flashes of brilliance appear throughout Little Trouble Girls, which makes it all the more vexing when the broader narrative falters, especially as the film’s momentum drifts in its final stretch.

This kind of story an adolescent, queer-tinged romance colliding with traditional values isn’t uncharted cinematic ground. Levan Akin’s And Then We Danced (2019) remains a towering example of the form. Yet Djukić manages to carve something compelling out of familiar terrain. Much of that comes from her skill with suggestion and nuance, weaving ambiguity into a rich undercurrent that highlights the suffocating grip of religion and outdated morality. If a few visual metaphors feel overly familiar, the film’s overall sensibility evokes a heady blend of Akin’s naturalism, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s dreamlike edge (Beginning), and Sofia Coppola’s melancholic grandeur (Lost in Translation).

At the center of it all is Ostan, who delivers a quietly staggering performance as Lucia. Her portrayal is steeped in repression, yearning, and inner conflict, yet she communicates volumes with subtle glances and small gestures rather than overt dramatics. Her chemistry with the radiant Švajger is equally magnetic, grounding the film in a believable, fragile intimacy. Everything that works or falters here hinges on their bond. True to life, their story ends without tidy resolution. The choral crescendos may not carry the same emotional force as their relationship, but Lucia’s coming-of-age remains poignant, well-crafted, and rewarding to witness.

Little Trouble Girls 2025 Parents Guide

Violence: there’s no gore, no street fights, and absolutely no splattered brains so unless you’re counting emotional bruising from power-tripping music teachers, it’s pretty clean.

Language: Expect maybe a “damn” or a “shit” (in Slovenian, maybe more poetic). But no swearing-in-front-of-grandma level stuff. Just emotional profanity . . . delivered under your breath.

Sexual Content: We’ve got teenage awakenings, furtive glances, a very tense situation with a choirmaster that chromatically screws with your nerves more psychological than explicit. The sexual tension pulses through the breathing and choral crescendos.

Substance Use / Drugs / Alcohol: no high-school keggers, no clinking bottles, no smoky back-room dramas.

Final Word

Little Trouble Girls is the art-house ghost creeping behind the choir robes: subtle, unsettling, and beautifully composed. It’s like being invited to the edge of teenage intuition and then asked to listen quietly.

So, is this safe for the tender-eyed? Depends how brave your kid is. They’ll find themselves stuck in that breath-held moment Lucija’s moment just long enough to feel something raw. And you? You’ll pretend you’re just here for the music. But you’ll know better.

Director: Urška Djukić
Original title: Kaj ti je Deklica
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 89′
World Premiere: Berlin Film Festival 2025
U.K. Release: 29 August 2025
U.S. Release: TBA
Where to Watch: In cinemas in the UK & Ireland