Devil's Playground

When Amish young people reach sixteen the rules of the community are suspended for a while. This is called Rumspringa. The young person may try out the life outside: drive a car, drink, wear modern clothes. Then a decision is expected: either be baptised and join the church, or stay outside. Whoever chooses the second is cut off by their family and by the world they grew up in. The documentary, directed by Lucy Walker, follows several young people in Indiana through this period. The camera neither judges them nor romanticises them; some drift from party to party, some get into drugs, some quietly go back a year later. The film's strength is in showing how heavy the moment of choice is: a person not yet twenty is left alone with a decision that will settle their whole life. Seventy-seven minutes.