Little Trouble Girls hailed as Cannes breakthrough in female desire cinema

The Cannes-premiered *Little Trouble Girls* has been hailed as a “delicate and audacious” exploration of adolescent desire, with critics praising Urška Djukić’s direction for capturing the “omnivorous avidity” of a girls’ choir whose hunger spreads like “the touch of God” through the body of Lucija, the film’s protagonist. Writing in *Público* on Thursday, 25 June 2026, the critic argues that Djukić’s work transforms choral music into a conduit for bodily and spiritual longing, marking a bold new chapter in European coming-of-age cinema .

The same day, *Público*’s weekly preview placed *Little Trouble Girls* alongside *Broken English* and a counterfactual Normandy D-Day drama as the week’s standout releases, underscoring the film’s growing cultural footprint in Portugal’s festival circuit . The choir sequences, already singled out for their tactile intensity, are now expected to feature prominently in Lisbon’s late-June screenings, where critics anticipate further debate over the film’s unflinching portrayal of female agency.

Meanwhile, the broader European press is parsing the film’s thematic echoes. Finnish reviewers, comparing *Little Trouble Girls* to recent DC adaptations, note that its unapologetic focus on female degradation and redemption aligns with what some call “the new era of anti-heroine sci-fi comedies.” One Helsinki critic, writing on Thursday, 25 June 2026, argues that the film’s moral reckoning arrives only when its heroine begins searching for her own compass, a moment that briefly “freezes” the narrative momentum .

Djukić, whose earlier animated work has toured festivals from Annecy to Zagreb, has cultivated a reputation for blending lyrical visuals with provocative subject matter. The choir scenes, described as both “delicate and audacious,” are said to oscillate between sacred and profane registers, inviting audiences to confront the sacralisation of teenage longing. Critics in Lisbon and Helsinki alike suggest that the film’s Cannes exposure may accelerate distribution deals across Central and Southern Europe, with Portuguese distributors already in advanced talks.

For now, the film remains in limited festival runs, but the critical consensus—delivered in the present tense on Thursday, 25 June 2026—points to a work that is already reshaping conversations about female desire on screen. Whether its theological undertones will translate into broader box-office appeal remains an open question, yet the early plaudits confirm *Little Trouble Girls* as one of the continent’s most talked-about debuts of the summer.