June

Ahammed Khabeer's 2019 Malayalam film covers ten years of a woman's life, from sixteen to twenty-six. June begins in her final year of school; school, university, work and relationships follow in turn, and the film looks at what she chooses at each stage. The narrative stages no large events. Exam results, friendships ending, family expectations and the disappointment of a first job are given equal weight. That is what produces the realism; no period is presented as more important than another. Rajisha Vijayan's performance carries the decade convincingly. Joju George plays the father, and the character's support is the film's warmest element. The telling is calm and nostalgic, with the end of the nineties and the early 2000s recreated in detail. Who it's for: those who like quiet coming-of-age stories and the new generation of Malayalam cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting dramatic tension; the film is deliberately uneventful.