Set in a drab Austria infused with bits of color from the colorful characters, Northern Skirts has that quality a lot of European films have of seeming old and new, bleak and exhilarating, at the same time. We follow Jasmin, who is Austrian, and Tamara, a Serb living in Austria, from the whisper of childhood dreams of the future, to the harsh reality of young adulthood, to the acceptance of the rollercoaster that adulthood really is. We watch the young women and the men they encounter fumbling to make the all-important connections with each other. Some of these characters have left the Balkans in search of greener grass. They have substituted one hostile environment for another.
Nobody wants to be where they are.
And yet, this is where they have to be. I liked it. Check local listings.