It’s the final weeks before school summer holidays, somewhere in lower Austria. Seventeen-year-old Paula is secretly in love with Charlotte. But Charlotte is Michael’s girlfriend. To get her mind off everything, Paula turns her attention to school friend Tim, who has real feelings for her. And then suddenly Lilli comes on the scene too… With carefully crafted character set-ups and a painstakingly put-together cast of young non- professional actors, Monja Art takes a close-up look at the amorous dramas of teenage life out in the provinces.

»I had been wanting to work with young people for a long time. (…) I don’t feel very close to the age of seventeen now, and neither do I feel any regret at not being seventeen any more. But I do think this period in your life is one of the most interesting ones. It’s a phase full of courage and energy and a lack of inhibitions, and the slightest event can very quickly turn into a drama. You become aware that you can completely let yourself go, and at the same time you believe nothing can possibly work out if you’re unable to be together with a certain person. It’s a genuine rollercoaster of emotions. I’m very drawn to the manic-depressive aspect of this period. (…)
I definitely didn’t want to make a coming-out film. Everything should be possible, if you’re prepared to try it. And the process of awakening is a very important subject for me. The film refers to Paula’s awakening at the beginning, and at the end she also awakens, in a figurative sense. It’s the closing of the parentheses. Of course, sexual awakening is an important aspect of this age, but I also wanted to talk about awakening to the realization that there is no going back. And no going back to youth, either.«
– Monja Art

Film series Hope & Fear

Awards for ›Siebzehn‹
Max Ophüls Preis & Beste Nachwuchsschauspielerin (Elisabeth Wabitsch) – Film Festival Max Ophüls Preis, Germany 2017