GIRLS TOGETHER | Omeleto

Three friends build a fort. Rena, Zep and Lauren are best friends, and every summer they build a fort in the woods out of discarded, thrown-out furniture. But the three friends are no longer quite children anymore, and Rena has been harboring a secret that she hasn't told Zep and Lauren yet. When the girls stumble across an injured fox, they try to decide what to do about it. The debate uncovers both their strong bond and attachment to one another, but it also unearths the hidden tensions between them, threatening to end their summer on a sour note. Directed by Christie Arnold and written by Christie Arnold and Issy Halpin, this tender, nostalgic short coming-of-age drama captures the fragile yet vividly felt nature of young female friendships, where emotions are intense and sometimes tightly held but the ability to navigate such tides hasn't yet come to full fruition. Rena cares deeply for her friends Zep and Lauren, but she has been holding a secret that may change their friendship altogether. But the burden of keeping it hidden has already changed the dynamic of their time together, leading to tension that will spark into outright conflict before the end of the summer. Capturing the lazy, drifting haze of summer with sun-soaked, almost pastoral cinematography and a visual approach that revels in poetic, telling detail, the storytelling captures both the affectionate warmth of childhood wonderment and the growing emotional complexities of leaving childhood. As they cleverly build a fort out of old furniture, there's an earthy groundedness in how the three girls play together in the woods that feels almost fable-like in its innocence. But the camera and editing also pay close attention to the feelings under the surface, particularly Rena's, and when they across a wounded fox in the woods, it feels like a sign that not just the summer but their childhoods are drawing to a close. As the three girls, actors Anita Albrecht, Anja Cilia and Faye Davies have both the devil-may-care anarchy of children and the immediacy of emotions they have not quite learned to hide yet as young women. It makes Rena's hiding of her secret all the more outrageous to them; it feels like a betrayal, not just changing the tenor of their friendship but possibly ending it altogether. It's a testament to the film's emotional immersion that we feel the ache of a possible rupture between these fiercely bonded friends and how sad it would make them to part at the end of the summer on such discord. The gift of GIRLS TOGETHER is its potent combination of nostalgia and poignancy, capturing both the intensity and friendship of young friendships, particularly among girls. It lingers in the space between childhood and adolescence, with an understanding of how helpless young people can feel when the circumstances of their lives are buffeted by the larger decisions of their parents or the world around them, and how vivid the emerging feelings can be. The film's final moments, both fierce and tender in love and innocence, feel like a memory being seared into our consciousness, like something that will shape us forever even if it does not last. GIRLS TOGETHER. Courtesy of Christie Arnold at https://christie-arnold.com.