Thirteen-year-old Marija, entrusted to her grandmother in the Lithuanian countryside, is new at school and mocked for her limp. A modelling school is popular among the schoolgirls, who are willing to do anything it takes to meet insane body-weight criteria – skipping meals, inducing vomiting, ingesting tapeworm eggs – and to find money to pay for a required photo session that promises careers in Paris and New York. Kristina is scammed into participating in the scheme, and despite their initial confrontation, Marija sees Kristina as a kindred spirit and enrols herself in the modelling course, bringing them closer together. But is pushing yourself to toxic, physical extremes really the ticket to a better future?
“Through the story of young girls navigating toxic landscapes, I wanted to explore the concept of the human body – the body as a project, currency, an object of desire, the body as a source of pain and magic.” (Saule Bliuvaite)