Toxic

Winner of the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival, this unflinching drama sees two teenagers put their bodies and minds through hell to become models. 

A sobering reminder of the punishing standards put on teenage girls, Saulė Bliuvaitė’s Locarno winner Toxic is a brutally beautiful drama that finds some light in the strength of female friendships in hopeless situations. In a crumbling industrial town, a young teen is mercilessly bullied for her limp. With no social options but to connect with her bullies, she eventually finds an ally in the spiky Kristina. When a modelling agency offers the chance of a contract to aspiring locals, the girls are willing to do anything to their bodies to escape the confines of their town.

"In a film about something so familiar, everything Bliuvaite delivers is unexpected." - Stephanie Bunbury, Sight and Sound