Babystar

They call her Nunki – the name of a star in the Sagittarius region, a pretty, twinkling blue when viewed from Earth. They probably haven’t thought about the raging inferno that it is up close – or (one can but hope) that it shares its name with a marketing company. Her name is Luca. She has been a star, of the other sort, from before she was born, when scans of her developing in the womb thrilled fans of her parents’ lifestyle vlog. Now, however, she’s getting to a difficult age.

Starring Maja Bons as the uncomfortable teenager, Babystar was directed and co-written by Joscha Bongard, whose previous work, documentary Verified Couple (aka Pornfluencer), focused on a pair of influencers working in the porn industry. At first the sunny, careful cultivated life of Stella (Bea Brocks) and her husband Chris (Liliom Lewald), seems like a world away from this, but it soon becomes apparent how much of the warmth on display is artificial, their lively rapport a product of professional calculation. What seem like natural interactions will suddenly be called to a halt and then repeated after Stella has given her daughter notes.

The girl’s patient, well-disciplined cooperation begins to crumble after an encounter with the slightly older Julie (Joy Ewulu), who shows concern for her well-being even as she offers her a smoke. A discreet exchange of numbers means that Luca suddenly has someone she can reach out to outside of the family unit and its various corporate hangers-on. This is about to become important. A series of disconcerting changes in her life comes to a head when she realises that her parents are thinking about having another baby. Perhaps it’s just coincidence, but it’s hard to escape the feeling that she’s just not the right kind of cute anymore. Furthermore, thinking about the baby, and what it might go on to experience, makes her question, perhaps for the first time, their decision to raise her in the public eye.

Life has become really impersonal, a marketing executive tells her. There are lots of lonely teenage girls out there. That’s why they’re going to use Luca’s image for a new AI best friend which, they suggest, will solve the problem. The more Luca talks to it, the better it will be able to take on her voice and personality. The artificial Luca will become the perfect source of support – and can, of course, be tucked away whenever it becomes inconvenient. The real Luca, watching more and more of herself being stripped away, becomes increasingly uncertain how to make a life out of what’s left.

Being vulnerable is her superpower, her mother tells her, as if that makes it okay.

There are relatively few surprises in this satirical tragedy, which screened as part of the 2026 Glasgow Film Festival, but there’s plenty to admire. With a past working for a management company used by YouTube stars, Bongard knows his subject matter well, and he draws on his previous work to produce framing which, as well as making us aware of the difference between filmed-in-the-film sequences and third person ones, provides humorous comment for those familiar with the clichés of the lifestyle genre, and alerts us to the possibility of other cameras in the built environment which might pick up valuable images of this unwilling celebrity at any time – something that presents a fresh set of dangers as she begins to explore her sexuality.

Pornography offers easy opportunity for a teenager in this situation. Luca explores the idea with some caution, but it’s difficult to know when she is being more subtly exploited, or when she’s exploiting other people. Though never explicit (at least by European standards), the film includes some decidedly uncomfortable scenes. Adding weight to this is the fact that much of what Luca goes through is not very different from what young people growing up in households without much love have experienced for generations – it’s just exacerbated by constant observation. Likewise, Stella’s secret smoking might be hidden from her husband if not from the cameras. None of this is new

Observing coolly, without judgement, Bongard seems to be asking not only about how we should respond to the intrusiveness of technology, but about what, now that we can no longer hide from these deeper social ills, we are going to do about them. As Luca holds the new baby, unwilling to be just another bystander, there seem to be two main options. As we look to the future, we might all face a similar dilemma.

Reviewed on: 01 Mar 2026