FILTHY

Filthy white is the colour of the socialist facade of the psychiatric clinic that seventeen-year-old Lena is taken to after a desperate and failed attempt at suicide, and filthy is an apt description of the way she feels inside too. An inept doctor allows the situation in group therapy to escalate, the patients are kept doped up on medication and electroshocks are administered in a misguided attempt to deliver them from their suffering. No wonder then that Lena cloaks herself in silence here too, holding out for a long time without telling a soul of the rape she suffered. On the cusp of first love, her math teacher molested her during a private tutoring session, sending her life careening off a cliff and causing her parents to react with the ill-fated decision to send her to the psych ward, which drives Lena into inner isolation. In this intense debut film, Tereza Nvotová presents a moving coming-of-age drama that touches the viewer deeply, above all through a strong performance from Dominika Moráková in the lead role. The film not only tackles an important taboo subject, it also serves as a devastating critique of the way that mental illness is dealt with in Slovakia.