Fifteen

Growing up, many girls still dream of being princesses, wearing shimmering gowns and being acclaimed for their beauty by everyone who sees them. It’s the ultimate fantasy of simple, uncomplicated femininity, shorn of all the messy things that being female-bodied and moving through the world as a woman actually involves. For girls like Ligia (Greta Martí) and Mayet (Macarena Oz), this dream is embodied by the quinceañera. As it approaches, they’re more and more excited, trying on their dresses and making plans. But life is about to take an unexpected turn, and the transition to adulthood will not be easy – if they make it at all.

At school, everyone assumes they’re a couple, leading to frequent homophobic abuse. Exactly how Mayte feels about Ligia is unclear – probably to her as much as anyone else – but the chemistry she briefly develops with another girl later in the film suggests it might be romantic, or what the Victorians called a ‘passionate friendship’. For Ligia it seems to be more of a Best Friends Forever thing. She has a boyfriend, Joel (Andre Fajardo), who seems like a sweet guy. But one night Joel has a scary encounter with something green and slimy which reaches up from inside a manhole. There’s an implication that it might be connected to La Llorona, the weeping woman, because he’s drawn to that manhole by the sound of a crying baby. At any rate, after it strikes, he begins to undergo some disturbing physical changes. And when he persuades Ligia to go to bed with him, so does she.

Pregnancy isn’t part of anybody’s princess dream. Furthermore, it’s not quite clear what Ligia is pregnant with, but it’s growing fast, and it’s not simple matter to deal with. Before long it also starts to assert its influence on Ligia’s mind, dramatically changing the way that she approaches life and threatening to rip her friendship with Mayte apart. All the time, the quinceañera gets closer. It no longer seems so much like a party to enjoy, but begins to take on an apocalyptic cast.

All the stresses and strains of contending with biological femininity are magnified here by the film’s supernatural aspect. The gore and grotesquerie is abundant, but never feels gratuitous in light of the realities of adolescence and pregnancy. There’s also the sense that Ligia is being thrust into a world which Mayte can’t understand, and will perhaps never be able to. Walking a path more like that of Artemis (or a certain Gregory Peck character), she too resists her destiny, trying to hold on to what the two of them had. Her reluctance to accept change comes from the noblest of places, but could destroy them both.

Ricardo Álvarez Canales and Andrzej Rattinger’s dialogue is wonderfully observed and the two leads give lively, fresh performances which make them feel like real 14-year-old girls, looking at the world in a way most adults forget. The pettiness of high school life initially dominates everything and it takes them both quite some time to realise how little it means next to these larger events. They behave like real teenage girls too, and no effort is made to romanticise or sanitise this, which contributes to the film’s bountiful energy.

Part of that youthful perspective is a sense of immediacy about everything, which is easy for viewers of any age to connect with. Fifteen is big and dramatic and in-your-face, but it makes sense that way. Buried inside it is a sweet tale about the purity of friendship, and the desperation involved in trying to hold onto one’s mind during stages in life when the body has an agenda of its own.

Fifteen screened as part of SXSW 2026.

Reviewed on: 17 Mar 2026