More powerfully tense than many thrillers full of action and blood, this finds the terror in the small gestures of growing up, and the enormous implications behind them.In the main story, adolescent Emma befriends cool girl Cassandra as they train to be part of a team that does gymnastics on horseback. Both friends and rivals, director Aschan manages to load almost every scene between the two with incredible unease. It seems as if at any moment they are either going to tear each others clothes off and make love, or kill each other, or kill someone else -- any and all combinations seem possible as they test their limits on the ragged edge of adulthood.At the same time, Emma's 7 year old sister Sara is pushed by the world around her to become aware of her body with alternating pride, curiosity and shame, and her nascent sexuality leads to some wildly uncomfortable scenes with the adult men in her family. This never crossed the line into exploitation, but it effectively made me want to jump out of my skin, while making me ponder the deeper thematic and psychological/social issues.One thing bothered me; the very end of the film seemed to over-simplify the mysterious complexity of much that had preceded it, reducing the story to something more pedestrian, and taking some of the considerable wind out of the film's sails. But this is still one of the better films about the terrors of youthful sexuality I've seen in a long while.

Alright, the DVD cover has actress Mathilda Paradeiser standing and holding a gun, which pretty much Sells the movie on a wrong Foundation. Sure there was a gun in the movie, but it wasn't a particularly big part of the story or the movie that it should be included on the movie cover.While the acting of Mathilda Paradeiser (playing Emma) and Linda Molin (playing Cassandra) was quite good and nicely carried the movie, then they were not able to save the awful script and storyline. It was as if director Lisa Aschan was abruptly cut short before having the chance to tie the ends together and actually make this a coherent and interesting story."Apflickorna", its original Swedish title, is unfathomably slow paced and took an hour and twenty-four minutes to tell almost nothing. There is a sort of beaten down and depressing sensation all throughout the entire movie, which in itself was a good achievement in setting the mood.It was a struggle to get through this movie, and the constant hope of it picking up pace and becoming entertaining just never rooted and took place.Now watched, this movie will be put on the shelf to gather dust and slowly fade into oblivion.

Yes, this film unravels slowly... like a Swedish winter, but it is a fascinating glimpse, I think, into female psychology in general (not just Swedish). The film is very sly, and you won't appreciate the bitter, yet kinda funny, poetic justice of the plot... until the final scene. Highly recommended. Gorgeous young actresses in the leading roles, and lovely Swedish scenery abounds. The film is poetic and even somewhat oneiric, and, in its glacial ellipticality perhaps owes more to old Ingmar Bergman films than it does to more recent Swedish fare. Indeed, the story of the love/hate relationship between two young women seems a nod to Bergman's 1966 classic, Persona. So universal is the the theme of this film that one could almost comprehend the story without subtitles and not knowing Swedish. A real gem.

Lisa Aschan is a director rookie and this is really promising.Two young girls are training voltige, the kind of competition there you make acrobatic moves on a horse's back. They have a relation, complete with hot feelings and jealousy, but without sex. It's a power struggle, but most of all it's a power struggle within one of the girls. Does she want control or life? You can't say.Great feeling for what the camera can express here. Great cuts, great rhythm. The story is however not so uncommon as we are expected to believe. The quality lies in what the lens registrates. And there will hopefully be much more to come from this director.