Confronting the quintessential high-school question: be yourself or conform to the group?
‘There’s so much behind my smile you don’t even know.’
Ninnoc wants to stand out from the crowd, but she’s afraid of what it might cost her. As she navigates the social pressures of high school, Ninnoc wavers between frustration and despair, her head vibrating with a constant hum of anxiety. In her moving portrait, the Dutch director Niki Padidar confronts the slippery nature of adolescent turmoil with artistry and empathy, spending time with her subject in private, in school and in staged settings where Ninnoc expresses herself creatively. The result is a film that deftly conveys Ninnoc’s courageous yet fragile attempts to balance fitting in with being herself – a struggle that for many resonates far beyond the classroom walls.
videoChildhood and adolescence
A neglected Dominican sugar town, as seen through the eyes of a 12-year-old local
11 minutes
videoLife stages
Grief, healing and laughter coexist at a unique retreat for widows and widowers
15 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
‘Do worms cry?’ – and other questions collected from the mind of a curious child
4 minutes
videoPersonality
A ‘little thief’ turned career criminal recounts a life on the wrong side of the law
5 minutes
videoConsciousness and altered states
‘I want me back’ – after a head injury, Nick struggles with his altered reality
7 minutes
videoWar and peace
Two Ukrainian boys’ summer unfolds just miles from the frontlines
22 minutes
videoVirtues and vices
Why Bennie tried to disappear, and what happened when he was found decades later
16 minutes
videoTechnology and the self
The commodified childhood – scenes from two sisters’ lives in the creator economy
14 minutes
videoSports and games
Havana’s streets become racetracks in this exhilarating portrait of children at play
5 minutes