Dubravka

This is an excellent movie, and a very underrated too. First, it is the kind of serious approaching-adolescence stories that are funny, touching, sometimes troubling and, overall, the most memorable. Dubravka is a wild, boyish Crimean girl ( the movie is beautifully filmed and presumably set on the Crimean coast, Soviet-era southern paradise) who is struggling not to lose her childhood dreams and illusions while discovering the adult world that is so often mean, cruel and unfair. Yet some things, like friendship, endure beyond. The movie's strong is in staying a children's movie while frankly showing adult and family problems. Some scenes are very powerful. I would recommend this movie to anyone, but notably to pre-teens, especially girls. But although it tackles issues that are still valid, it is old and romantic, and being set in the Soviet Union might not be understood by all.