June’s selection in the Espoo Ciné Recommends series is the award-winning The Little Sister, which received acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival. Tickets are now on sale through Kino Tapiola’s online box office. The screening is held on Thursday 6 June at 17:15.
“Hafsia Herzi’s second feature deservedly won the Queer Palm at Cannes last year. The film is a fresh, natural and cliché-free coming-of-age story about a 17-year-old Muslim girl searching for a balance between football, her studies and love.”
— Tytti Rantanen, Executive Director of Espoo Ciné
The Little Sister tells the sensitive coming-of-age story of a young woman navigating her own feelings, the expectations placed upon her by those around her, and the courage it takes to find her own voice. The film had its world premiere in the main competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Queer Palm and earned Nadia Melliti the award for Best Actress.
Fatima is the youngest of three daughters, feeling her way towards adulthood and her place in the world. At 17, she finds herself torn between her awakening desires, her attraction to women, and the hopes of her loving, religious family. When she begins university in Paris, an entirely new world opens up before her. She makes friends, falls in love, and experiences romantic love for the first time on her own terms.
Amid it all, she is confronted with a timeless and deeply moving question: how can one remain true to oneself when reconciling different aspects of one’s identity seems impossible?