Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave

The anxieties and heart-fluttering feelings of first love are given tender, respectful treatment in this charming coming-of-age tale.

Karl is 12, short, insecure … and totally in love. Does the much taller, literally out-of-reach Lea like him back? If so, how can he tell? And how is he going to deal with all the feelings that come with a crush in the meantime? An opportunity to understand these nascent feelings arrives when a teacher encourages Karl and his friends to make a nonfiction short film interviewing people about their first loves. While working on this project, Karl channels his longing into his own creative pursuits – taking photographs that he develops in his homemade darkroom, and composing a love song with his cooler older brother – in the hope of impressing Lea.

A sweet take on a familiar summertime-coming-of-age narrative, this special film dares to regard the normal, everyday emotions of adolescents as meaningful and worthy of exploration, with director Bernd Sahling placing the camera at eye level with his pint-sized protagonist. Free from nostalgia and never melodramatic or preachy, Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave is perfectly attuned to tweenage feelings.

Content: Melbourne International Film Festival