Tiger Girl
Hell hath no fury like an angry teenage girl. Jakob Lass’s Tiger Girl proves it by unleashing to devilishly, unhinged characters on the loose. Margerete (Maria Dragus) takes up a job as a security guard after failing the police entrance exam. A mysterious heroine, simply named Tiger (Ella Rumpf) comes to her rescue one night when Margerete is struggling to deal with a sexually aggresive colleague. The duo begin regaining the streets for women, putting pushy males in their place but soon their violence loses sight of the moral ground.
Despite treating issues of body politics and sexual violence, Tiger Girl is 100% unabashed fun. The characters are insatiable and the action is fast paced. Tiger is rambunctious and teaches soft-spoken Margarete how to shout. The two leads display a marvelous chemistry and are irresistible together. The film adheres to Lass’s FOGMA manifesto, in it is largely unscripted; the director allows his actresses to improvise the majority of the dialogue which renders it fresh and to-the-point.
The story does suffer from trying to outdo itself elevating the intensity with every chapter, and at times it crumbles under its own weight. The relentless pacing redeems the weaker episodes as the editing seems to be sponsored by Red Bull, cutting sharply and wildly, offering a new, more vivid image per second.
There are times where this endless need to stimulate and entertain undermines the important issues the film attempts to articulate and discuss. The raw, documentary aesthetic works well to ground the action in a tenuous sense of reality when the characters risk becoming cartoon characters.
Tiger Girl is an entertaining and passionate adventure that is charged with modern energy and a radical approach to filmmaking; its fresh dialogue and vivid look make up for its flaws: when you go head first for the glass ceiling you’re bound to come away with a few bumps.
Sean Gallen
Tiger Girl does not have a UK release date yet.
For further information about the 67th Berlin Film Festival visit here.
Read more reviews from the festival here.
Watch the trailer for Tiger Girl here:
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