Texas. Sara, 14, grows up in a family of goat herders. As are her eleven siblings, she is home schooled by very religious parents who teach their strict precepts of the Bible, and that the role of a woman is to serve men and remain pure until marriage. The day Sarah meets Colby, a young amateur rodeo rider, she questions this education.

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If Roberto Minervini’s movie seems to be a floating abstract, it is because Stop the Pounding Heart is a hybrid between documentary and improvisation. After spending many years in this American community, the Italian director created with its inhabitants a movie shot with no script and a plot that was developed as it happened. The result is a strange movie straddling a pastoral naturalism and a typical coming-of-age story, about a teenager who discovers her body and female identity as it she comes up against the outside world. But beyond the fascinating aspect of the film’s process, Stop the Pounding Heart remains too vague to be convincing or earn its beautiful title.