Cannes Film Fest 2023
Un Certain Regard
A summer trip to Greece by three British high school grads takes a devastating turn when one of them is sexually assaulted in How to Have Sex.
| How to Have Sex | |
|---|---|
Release poster
|
Molly Manning Walker’s impressive feature debut deservedly won top prize at this year’s Un Certain Regard sidebar.
Described by its director as loosely autobiographical, How to Have Sex shows a subtle, devastating expose of the culture of sex in the post MeToo generation, captures authentically female adolescence.
Narrative Premise:
Sixteen-year-old Best friends Tara, Em, and Skye, age 16, head to the party resort of Malia on the Greek island of Crete for rites-of-passage holiday.
While Em will be off to college in the autumn, Tara and Skye are less certain of their futures. The girls look forward to drinking, clubbing and hooking up, expecting to have the best summer of their lives.
Tara, the only virgin in the trio, feels pressure to match the sexual experiences of her friends, one of whom shows attraction to females.
In the course of the text, there’s flirting, teasing (including Tara’s being virgin), innocent and not so innocent foreplay, and even date rape (which remans unknown almost to to the end).
In the toughest role of the trio, Mia McKenna Bruce delivers a powerful portrayal of a young woman grappling with the reality of what has happened to her.
As debutant director, Walker shows an unusually assured hand in dealing with the changing tone and mood between scenes, and sometimes within the same scene. She is also adept at depicting the ever-shifting dynamics among the three friends, all struggling in their own subjective way to grasp, if not to fully understand, how their brief trip had forever impacted their personalities and worldviews.
Prior to its debut, Mubi acquired distribution rights to the film for North America, UK, Ireland, Italy, Latin America, Turkey and Benelux.
Running time: 91 Minutes
