Galerianki (Mall Girls) (2009)

Anna Karczmarczyk, Dagmara Krasowska, Dominika Gwit, Magda Ciurzynska, Franek Przybylski

A teenager discovers the high price of being socially accepted in this drama from Poland.Alicja (Anna Karczmarczyk) is a fourteen-year-old girl whose family has just moved to a new city. Alicja's pare... read more nts are indifferent to her emotional needs and her new classmates at school are either hostile or dismissive towards her, while her dowdy style of dress doesn't help much. Alicja realizes that if she wants to have any sort of social life she needs to make friends with some of the popular girls at school, and she struggles to earn the approval of three classmates who wear trendy clothes and hang out at the local shopping mall. The girls respond to Alicja's flattery and in time she's welcomed into their circle, but then she learns how their afford their designer jeans and new cell phones -- having sex with older men for money. As Alicja wrestles with her conscience about her new friends, she falls in love with a handsome but quiet boy who makes it clear he doesn't approve of her or her new friends. Galerianki (aka Mall Girls) was the first feature film from filmmaker Katarzyna Roslaniec; it's an expanded version of a short subject she made as a master's project in film school. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi