Tigermilch (2017)

The two 14-year-old girls Nini and Jameelah from Berlin have been best friends for a long time. For the summer holidays, they plan to “lose their virginity.” Nini wants to do it with Nico, a graffiti artist she has known for a long time, while Jameelah has her sights set on the romantic Lukas. Ten years ago, Jameelah arrived from Iraq with her mother, Noura, as an asylum seeker; her father and brother had been murdered there. In the same Gropiusstadt apartment block where the girls live is their Bosnian schoolmate Amir, who lives with his older siblings Jasna and Tarik and their mother. Jasna is in a relationship with Dragan, a Serb, but Tarik will not tolerate it. He has difficulty walking because of a gunshot wound inflicted by Serbs during the civil war. The girls’ first attempt to get closer to their chosen boys, at a wild party involving alcohol and other drugs in a Grunewald villa where the owners are away, ends in disappointment for both friends. Jameelah’s next idea is to perform a “love spell” at midnight in the green space in front of their apartment block: they will undress, call out the names of the boys they desire, and scatter rose petals. When they realize someone is approaching, they hide behind a piece of playground equipment. It is Tarik and Jasna, arguing. As they appear to make up and embrace, the girls watch Tarik kill his sister with a knife. Unsure what to do, Nini and Jameelah decide to press ahead and make a second attempt to lose their virginity the following day, by prostituting themselves on Kurfürstenstraße—this time, they succeed. Back in their neighborhood, they learn that Amir has taken responsibility for the killing. Now they are under even greater pressure, since they alone know the truth. Jameelah insists they must not go to the police, because becoming entangled in a criminal case could lead to her deportation instead of the citizenship she hopes to obtain. Unlike Nini, she is also afraid of blood vengeance by the victim’s family. Their joint attempt to change Amir’s mind while he is in pretrial detention fails, and Nini finally plucks up the courage to file a report. Nico encourages her—he has finally found his way to her—while Jameelah learns that Lukas and his cousin are expecting a child together. Nini’s decision to act alone makes Jameelah furious, and the two first lash out at each other verbally and then even come to blows. Amir helps bring about their reconciliation, while it is overshadowed by the deportation order that has indeed been issued for mother and daughter, on the grounds that Noura briefly returned to her home country for a funeral. At the very last moment before their departure, Nini appears once more and makes sure that the two girls get their emotional farewell scene—separated by the security fence, but connected by the friendship bracelet Nini gives Jameelah.