Berlin-based director Alena Shevchenko's second feature on our website is a whimsical short about a girl learning about masturbation for the first time. While female masturbation is still a taboo in a society, many women say they'd never masturbated and have many doubts about themselves.

The process of making a film with sexual topic was not simple, as Shevchenko recalls:

My idea was to shoot the film in Berlin where I’m based as I believed that this city was super open to this kind of topic however I faced some obstacles. I initially found an amazing character for the film, Linda Rohrer, but after the online audition she told me she wasn’t ready to play in ‘this’ kind of film. I was really disappointed but came to the realization that the film could only work with her. So four months later I made a very detailed storyboard, which was designed to persuade her to play in the film and she agreed to come on board. We then bonded over the very purposeful likeness of the character to her in my storyboard!

Using lightness, comedy, and dream-like visual interludes as a conduit, Shevchenko commentates on the prudishness accompanying matters of masturbation, entering us into a celebration of its merits through the awakening of her film’s lead – and the openness she embraces as a result of her body exploration (Nowness)