LOVELY RITA

Rita is a wilful and unruly teenager on the verge of womanhood. Her sexual awakening leads her to intimacy with a young schoolboy and an older bus driver. Rita’s efforts to break out of her solitude and claustrophobic environment isolate her even more until, one day, she crosses the line.

In an acerbic feature debut, Jessica Hausner added her own sharp shocks to extreme cinema at the turn of the millennium, plumbing the profane depths of a teenage girl’s desires. Shot in serrated, lurid lo-fi, transgressions are made all the more raw and vibrant in this daring coming-of-age film.