COCOON
Directed by Leonie Krippendorff
Certificate: 15
☆☆☆☆

SET over a summer in Berlin, this carefully observed drama follows the growing pains of 14-year-old Nora (Lena Urzendowsky) – and tracks her steps into adulthood with a metaphor provided by the caterpillars she keeps as pets.

Sibling Jule (Anna Lena Klenke) is at first her role model, an older sister swanning through a social whirl, intent on her posts being liked and shared on social media.

Nora observes, wondering if this is what life is meant to be about, and unconsciously feels detached from the teenage pressures she is beginning to be subjected to.

Director Leonie Krippendorff has built a story that while in the genre of coming-of-age, provides each character with a distinct personality instead of rolling out the same tropes about the confusion that comes with adolescence.

When a new student Romy (Jella Haase) joins her class, the touch paper inside Nora is lit – and more than just finding someone who seems to get her, she takes that confidence into exploring a new sense of belonging.

This is a film about landmarks in time: it has been a year where our teenagers have missed out on so many rites of passages – swotting for GCSE and A-level, exams, having that release when school is finished, end-of-term balls, waiting for results, applying for university, freshers’ weeks… and this makes Kripendorff’s story all the more compelling, a timely reminder of a world very much changed.

Nora and Jule have had to become fast-tracked adults in many ways due to their alcoholic mother and we sense the grief for a lost childhood coupled with the excitement of falling in love for the first time. That confusion is woven into the plot and helps the viewer root for the leads.

The simple message running throughout – be true to yourself – is no groundbreaker and at times feels a bit contrived.

But you’d have to be a very grumpy teenager not to recognise the big heart at the centre of this film, helped along by nuanced and subtle performances.