Every baby Sapphic dream involves some sort of escapade to run away or a road trip or to kiss a pretty girl surrounded by fairy lights. Girls Don’t Cry sets out on a mission to finally bring all of these dreams to fruition.
Girls Don’t Cry, directed by Andrea Zuliani, is an intimate exploration of Ele (Emma Benini) and Mia’s (Anastasia Doaga) slow but overpowering love, as they traverse the Italian countryside in a rundown campervan. A friendship initially formed over secret cigarettes, they are strangely and inexplicably drawn together.
Ele struggles to adjust to her new stepfather following the death of her father, who was an ardent photographer and has passed the passion down to Ele. His second passion was travelling in the family campervan, which lies empty and rundown in a camper yard. Ele retreats to the van as her safe space, determined to fix it.
Meanwhile, Mia is being chased down by an unknown gang; she is portrayed as a troubled, misguided youth and functions as the total opposite to the pure Ele. With the help of Mia’s friend, the camper starts up again, beginning Ele’s childhood nostalgia fuelled getaway.
As contrived as it may be, Mia’s sudden reentrance after hiding in the campervan allows for a beautiful and compelling love story verging on fairytale to begin. We follow their many antics trying to survive on the open road, with delicate sprinklings of angst and yearning throughout.
Ele desperately tries to recapture the childhood joy she once felt travelling with her father. She tries to capture these moments with her camera, to bottle them up and never forget the forgotten happiness she had found in the countryside. But she can never fully recapture it.
This is a film about the nervous glances and the touches you’re not sure mean anything more. It’s about second guessing the romantic or the platonic insinuations of every laugh, hug and kiss. It’s a film that I would’ve absolutely freaked out about at 14, and the Cigarettes After Sex needle drop would’ve only added to that. “Nothing’s gonna hurt you baby” seems the perfect lyric to summarise Girls Don’t Cry.
In an effort not to spoil the fairytale of Girls Don’t Cry, I won’t give away too much, but just know that it will heal your inner gaybaby. And if you’re a confused 14 year old Sapphic, you really need to see it.
By Parker
Girls Don’t Cry screens Tuesday 20th Feb at 7pm, you can book tickets here:https://queerscreen.org.au/sessions/girls-dont-cry/