LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL 2024 REVIEW!! Desperate times call for desperate measures. This well-worn cliché is at the heart of promising Lithuanian filmmaker Saule Bliuvaite’s feature-length debut, Akiplėša (Toxic). For young girls living in abject poverty, modeling is an alluring means to escape a life without any realistic avenues to success, as they certainly can’t look toward the adults in their lives for inspiration. The dour lives of the girls in the film will make audiences squirm, but there’s value in highlighting that anything can be commodified—even the bodies of barely pubescent girls.
Marija (Vesta Matulyte) lives with her grandma after being dumped there by her deadbeat mom. She has a hard time fitting in with her contemporaries in their destitute Lithuanian village. Even with her noticeable limp, she is noticed by a local modeling scout, who promises Marija and other girls an exotic life in faraway places if they can make the cut.
Her companion throughout all this is Kristina (Ieva Rupeikaite), another hopeful model willing to resort to desperate measures to appeal to the scouting agency. Everything is on the table. This includes but is certainly not limited to painful piercings and the introduction of a parasite that will help her to lose weight.
“…another hopeful model willing to resort to desperate measures to appeal to the scouting agency.”
There’s no doubt that this “modeling” agency is really just a front for a sex-trafficking operation. It makes for a harrowing experience to see these girls fall hook, line, and sinker for the lies that manipulative adults tell them. The grossness of watching the talent scouts ogle these young bodies and measure their waistlines will challenge audiences sensitive to such depictions. One particularly poignant sequence has the girls lined up like products to be sold to the highest bidder.
Considering they are junior screen actors, both leads are commendable, however one would be hard-pressed to deem either performer as having a star-making performance here. An obvious point of comparison for Toxic is the work of Andrea Arnold and other filmmakers with a penchant for representing the hopeful downtrodden (particularly young women) in less-than-desirable locales. This is missing the jaw-dropping performances that define Arnold’s most prominent work, though, thereby placing Bliuvaite’s work on a tier below.
The visual frame is frequently dominated by the imposing presence of a derelict power plant towering over the characters as they navigate their world. The competing images of the girls and that of industry highlight their status as sex objects in an environment that thrives on the commodification of materials and people. The visual compositions are truly remarkable and go well beyond what one should expect in a feature debut and most films in general.
For all of the promise Bliuvaite’s film builds up, it lacks a satisfying conclusion, or at least one that packs some oomph. We won’t give specifics in this forum, but there are definitely many who will want a stronger closing statement. There’s nothing inherently wrong with ambiguity, but it does feel as if Bliuvaite is holding back. Maybe that’s the point, though, because these girls have no way out of their predicament. The perpetual nature of exploitation prevents a satisfying conclusion.
Akiplėša (Toxic) screened at the 2024 Locarno Film Festival.
"…these girls have no way out of their predicament..."
