'Light Light Light' - Inari Niemi's Finnish queer film
The world can be made or broken on the lips of one person.
In the spring of 1986, Eastern Europe changed forever with the explosion of Chernobyl. And in the Finnish film "Light Light Light" ("Valoa Valoa Valoa"), so does the life of fifteen-year-old girl Mariia (Rebekka Baer) when a new girl, Mimi (Anni Iikkanen), arrives in her small town. The two events, Chernobyl and a youthful summer passion with Mimi, are tied together in the ineffable memories 20 years later of an adult Mariia (Laura Birn) who returns home to care for her ailing mother (Pirjo Lonka).
"Light Light Light" (Intramovies) is a special queer film, in part because of how it rhetorically aims itself at teenagers and in part because of its artistic achievements.
The historical setting of Chernobyl radiation and paranoia provide the summer romance with the gravity that partners with young love that one can only know as a teen. The world can be made or broken on the lips of one person.
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