“Teen-age fashion doll! A real grown-up fashion model! Everything is real!”*

This Barbie is a model.

She has long blonde hair and distinguishable pace. A comb. Fashionable jeans that might or might not be stolen from a friend. Removable high heels… that she cannot walk in. She is spectacular but normal. Suburban but cosmopolitan. Japan, Korea and Paris are lying in her feet.

She is Marija. She is Kristina. She is Gerda, she is Diana. She is outstanding and on sale, in case you have anything to offer in return – escape, for example.

Marija (Vesta Matulyte) achieves the impossible: you could argue that a model with a limp is like a violinist using only one arm to play a Bach concerto. But in Saule Bliuvaite’s captivating but devastating debut, the Lithuanian filmmaker mixes child’s play with adult activities by commenting on beauty standards and their clash with eastern European insecurities.