Luci Shroder’s debut at Curtas arrives with a blast: this Australian filmmaker’s short film, a kind of "one day in the life of", lives off an unassailable realism, one that does not make concessions, doing justice to the (arguable) maxim that it is only possible to film the real with the same, exact truth it contains, even if that implies an uncomfortable crudity. The speedy, zigzagging, noisy way in which the film begins, its abrupt editing reminiscent of the aesthetics of music videos, sets the right tone for a characterisation of its generation, a teenage American girl from the suburbs in free wheel (or fall) with a vital (precisely) mission to accomplish in 24 hours. And if the rudeness of this "rebel with a cause" makes such an impression, that is obviously due to the work of the actress who gives her a body, astonishingly convincing in her personification of the rebellion and carelessness of all young people of all times (or at least of those with life and stories within them). The witty gag at the end, more than conveying a pinch of (dark) humour, than joining the "tragi" to the comedy, is, from another angle, the film playing with itself and with its seriousness, while at the same time finally allowing the viewers to relax their muscles. (FN)