Coming of age
When young people fight out their conflicts, dialogues full of possibilities emerge
Coming-of-age films form a genre of their own. It refers to films in which older children and adolescents are confronted with fundamental questions of growing up or with strong feelings. They then deal intensively, often painfully, with the adult world, rubbing up against the parental home, school or similar social institutions. Coming-of-age films can be dramatic, tragic, but also funny, when young people in puberty fight out family, social or individual conflicts in order to question sexuality, gender roles or other challenges, both morally and emotionally.
The "Berlinale" 2023 covered the topic with its retrospective "Young at Heart - Coming of Age at the Movies". Rainer Rother, head of Retro and artistic director of the Deutsche Kinemathek: "In today's world, the young generation faces fears, doubts and an increasingly uncertain future in the face of climate change, pandemic and war experiences. Cinema - as a cultural institution also undergoing change - offers the place to enter into encounters and to show ideas for shaping our future. For films and their experience on the big screen can give us support and orientation. They can think freedom and convey ideals, can evoke great feelings, form communities and shape us for a lifetime. Coming-of-age films in particular are dialogues of possibilities from which audiences can draw perspective and inspiration."
Dialogues of possibilities: It is in this spirit that we too have put together the films in this collection.