SWEET

SIXTEEN

More commonly known as "Sweet sixteen," the age of sixteen has long been idealized and even mythified in the collective imagination. In this film-essay by Quebecois director Alexa-Jeanne Dubé, an adaptation of the eponymous play by playwright Suzie Bastien, eight sixteen-year-old girls deliver eloquent monologues about their dreams and desires, as well as their fear of becoming adults. Sucré Seize brilliantly deconstructs the illusion of a candy-coated adolescence to reveal, with great theatricality, the sometimes harsh realities that lie beneath.