Young at Heart – Coming of Age at the Movies

A 16-year-old girl views sex as a way to escape her dysfunctional family. This partially improvised film is a character study of a young Parisian rebel, marking the prize-winning screen debut of Sandrine Bonnaire.

Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Evelyne Ker, Dominique Besnehard and Maurice Pialat

A young man’s journey from a village school in Bengal to university in Kolkata, where he discovers a new world. In a film inspired by Italian neo-realism, an individual coming-of-age presages Indian modernization and its path to independence.

Starring Pinaki Sen Gupta, Smaran Ghosal, Kanu Bannerjee and Karuna Bannerjee

A sensitive teenager tries to gain a foothold in a Paris banlieue amidst gang wars and a criminal family. The film is a social grotesquerie that uses lyrical exaggeration and surreal scenes of violence to track youthful sensibilities.

Starring Bruno Cremer, François Négret, Vincent Gasperitsch and Fabienne Babe

After seeing the film, a young girl develops an eerie fascination with the monster in the horror classic ‘Frankenstein’. An ambiguous film about childhood fears that masterfully blends reality and imagination onscreen.

Starring Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent and Isabel Tellería

A school principal tries in vain to put a stop to the antics of a notorious truant. With its generation-specific references, this high school comedy by John Hughes set the benchmark for the genre and gleefully showcased Matthew Broderick’s talents.

Starring Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Mia Sara and Jeffrey Jones

A six-year-old girl is used to being adored. She has an identity crisis when a new boy in the neighbourhood refuses to idolise her. This sensitive portrait of a youngster does not trivialise childhood distress, but takes it seriously.

Starring Inga Mickytė, Lilija Žadeikytė, Sergejus Martinsonas and Arvydas Samukas

A grouchy TV weatherman ends up in a time loop that keeps him trapped in a small town. His inner transformation, which wins him the sympathy of the locals and the affections of his producer, is as heart-warming as it is funny.

Starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott and Stephen Tobolowsky

A drama about young foundling Kaspar Hauser, who resists all attempts to integrate him into the Biedermeier society of the 1830s. In Herzog’s version, lay actor Bruno S. delivers a fascinating portrayal of the romanticised misfit.

Starring Bruno S., Walter Ladengast, Brigitte Mira and Hans Musäus

Eight-year-old Ahmed is determined to return his best friend’s school notebook so the other boy doesn’t get expelled. But adults keep getting in the way and leading him astray. This Iranian children’s film inexorably exposes the grown-ups' ignorance.

Starring Babek Ahmed Poor, Ahmed Ahmed Poor, Kheda Barech Defaei and Iran Outari

Selected by Tilda Swinton

A young child and her elderly neighbour encounter a host of hurdles buying a bag of rice in the teeming metropolis of Teheran. This formally reductive, yet delightful film features a vivid amateur performance in the child lead.

In small-town Texas at the beginning of the 1950s, two friends deal with the dilemma of growing up. When the local movie theatre shuts down, they are forced to bid farewell to their youth. The film is a bittersweet, beautiful New Hollywood classic.

Starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd and Ben Johnson

A young runaway roams the beach and amusement park at Coney Island. Filmed from his perspective, the film becomes a dense weave of everyday observation, and a masterpiece of location shooting that powerfully influenced the French New Wave.

Starring Richard Brewster, Winnifred Cushing, Jay Williams and Will Lee

Searching for his missing girlfriend in the titular teeming metropolis, a rural young fisherman is marginalised and oppressed. But he also discovers solidarity among the poorest of the poor. A milestone social melodrama from the developing world.

Starring Hilda Koronel, Rafael Roco, Jr., Lou Salvador, Jr. and Tommy Abuel

Zaftig, 22-year-old Muriel Heslop dreams of a fairy prince and a glamorous wedding. She escapes a toxic family situation and finds independence and self-confidence in this wacky romantic comedy enriched with ample irony and oodles of ABBA songs.

Starring Toni Collette, Bill Hunter, Rachel Griffiths and Sophie Lee

A mix of narrative and documentary about the director’s own date rape in high school. In re-enactments and conversations between the director and the young actors, it reflects on the sequence of events and their life-changing consequences.

Starring Michele Manenti, Jim Carrington, Anne Mundstuk and Martha Coolidge

Four successful women reminisce about the summer of 1970, when they became BFFs at the age of 12. A nostalgic trip down memory lane, featuring relative newcomers like Christina Ricci alongside established stars like Melanie Griffith and Demi Moore.

Starring Christina Ricci, Rosie O’Donnell, Thora Birch and Melanie Griffith

In 1962 Parma, a well-heeled young man flirts with Marxism and sleeps with his aunt. With intense dialogue and moody black-and-white images, this essayistic-experimental film evokes the emotional landscape before the upheavals of the late sixties.

Starring Adriana Asti, Francesco Barilli, Allen Midgette and Morando Morandini

In Los Angeles, a 17-year-old is at odds with his parents and at violent loggerheads with a teenage clique. Seeking a path forward in life, he is helped by love. The film made James Dean immortal and inspired countless teen movies around the world.

Starring James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Jim Backus

The life of privation of Martinique’s Black population under French colonial rule, seen from the point of view of a young man. The Martinican director’s film version of the eponymous book won a host of awards.

Starring Garry Cadenat, Darling Légitimus, Douta Seck and Joby Bernabé

Two very different brothers are reunited amidst youth gang fighting in Tulsa, Oklahoma. An update of the teen film genre, shot in retro black-and-white with a stellar cast of young stars, the movie attained contemporary pop culture appeal.

Starring Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Vincent Spano and Diane Lane

After a young vagabond freezes to death, chance acquaintances reminisce about their encounters with her. Inspired by Orson Welles’ ‘Citizen Kane’, Agnès Varda paints a fictive-documentary portrait of a young person on the margins of society.

Starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Méril, Stéphane Freiss and Yolande Moreau

Two friends fleece older gentlemen and go on a spree. This experimental film, banned for a time, was a milestone of the Czechoslovak New Wave. With its razzmatazz collage of women in revolt, it is also a celebration of the visual variety of cinema.

Starring Ivana Karbanová, Jitka Cerhová, Marie Češková and Jiřina Myšková

The story of a fatal amour fou between two desperate outsiders, set during the 1960 student protest in Tokyo. This gaudy, violence-laden pop melodrama was the starting signal for a “new wave” in Japanese cinema.

Starring Yūsuke Kawazu, Miyuki Kuwano, Yoshiko Kuga and Jun Hamamura

In 1928 Kansas, young love collides with the class divide and puritan morals. The film is considered a key work in the “teen angst” genre, with Natalie Wood and Warren Beatty bringing a captivating emotional authenticity to their roles.

Starring Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, Pat Hingle and Audrey Christie

As a typhoon rages outside a school near Tokyo, inside a tragedy unfolds. In an escalating series of episodes, this school drama depicts erotic experiences and emotional confrontations among the pupils.

Starring Yuichi Mikami, Yūki Kudō, Tomokazu Miura and Toshiyuki Matsunaga

A young couple in Dakar dreams of getting to Paris. They engage in a series of risky adventures to try and raise money for the trip. A modern, post-colonial film from Senegal that imaginatively caricatures a mind-set still hanging on colonial norms.

Starring Magaye Niang, Mareme Niang, Christophe Colomb and Moustapha Toure

After the accidental death of her husband and daughter, a young woman seeks solace and anonymity in Paris before facing up to her responsibilities. Lead Juliette Binoche garnered Best Actor in Venice for her haunting portrayal in this powerful drama.

Starring Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Florence Pernel and Charlotte Véry

A melancholy look back at the five teenage sisters who all committed suicide in the 1970s because they saw no other way out of their parents’ strict household regimen. An enchanting cinematic rendering of a “spring awakening” that ends in tragedy.

Starring James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Kirsten Dunst and Josh Hartnett