Movies

“Atlántida” is a sweet coming of age and Sapphic summer romance

When we hear of summers of love, we often think hot, hot heat. They’ve become synonymous with teenage coming of age stories. But sometimes that heat is instead a pleasant warmness we can bask in for a while, getting neither scalds nor the shivers. That essentially describes Argentinian film Atlántida.

Director/writer Ines María Barrionuevo‘s debut feature follows a summer day in the lives of two teenage sisters. Lucia (Melisa Romero) is quiet and studious, spending her summer preparing for qualifying exams for university. Her sister Elena (Florencia Decall) has spent the summer whining over her broken leg and ordering her sister around. With their parents away, these two have only each other, whether they like it or not.

Elena is miss popular and even though she’s stuck at home she still manages to get several of her friends to come over. Fortunately for Lucia, one of those friends happens to be tomboy Ana (Sol Zavala).

We first see Lucia interact with Ana in the place to be in town—the public pool. Lucia loves to go for early morning swims, while Elena just resents the fact that she can’t go. It’s also where all the town’s teenagers share their stories of lust, and where we see the first cracks start to show in Ana when she realizes she is nowhere near as interested in the idea of making out with boys as her friends are.

Back at the sisters’ house, Lucia is done with Elena and takes off in their parents’ truck. When she comes by Ana, the two concur that it only makes sense that they hang out.

Now Lucia has some understated game, taking Ana to a secluded spot to teach her how to drive. Then there’s the cute game of hide-and-seek through an abandoned building. And the cherry on top of the cake? Removing the stinger from your would-be girlfriend’s face after a dangerous confrontation with a bee.

All the while there are two other storylines occurring: Elena has the hots for the significantly older local doctor and is seeing where that could take her. Then there’s the three young siblings who are struggling to keep their family’s honey business alive. This last one seems like an odd fit in what really should have been a tale of two very different sisters. Plus that’s screen time that could have gone to Lucia and Ana!

We could have used that, as this is a slow build movie. Very slow. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a payoff, because there is. It’s just the kind of payoff that will leave you wanting more.

Atlántida is a lovely little film that could have been even better with an extra 25 minutes tacked on to expand upon its several storylines. Nevertheless, Barrionuevo and her talented young cast are certainly names to watch out for in the future.

Visit the movie’s Facebook page to find out when it’ll be playing at an LGBT film festival near you.

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