Death of a Virgin and the Sin of Not Living

This morning, Etienne has to lie to his mother so that he can join three friends for a secret outing. They have pooled the money to pay for a sex worker and are about to have intercourse for the first time. Although the teenagers have to travel some way for their enterprise, there is no time to think about what they are going to do. Instead, they cover up their nervousness with non-stop bragging, joking and competitive arguments. Nobody in their radius is spared as the protagonists make casually insulting remarks about other people who cross their path. Although most of their quips go unchallenged, they do not remain entirely uninterrupted – for the film also reveals in voice-over monologues what is troubling the many secondary characters. Not only are their inner fears and longings disclosed, we are also told what fate has in store for them. And in this way, we learn more about the young men than they are willing to reveal to each other. In his debut film, George Peter Barbari deconstructs the global myth that surrounds a masculine rite of passage. He has created a polyphonic film of formal clarity in which poetry and social reality painfully collide. (Berlinale)