Frustrated, confused and isolated by their own sexual experiences, the filmmakers Mette Carla Albrechtsen and Lea Glob host a casting call, inviting young women in Copenhagen to talk about their sexual history. One hundred women showed up, and their performances, testimonies full of vulnerability and bravery, evolve into an expectation-defying, wholly authentic experience. They express their fears, doubts, desires, and triumphs in ways that strike a universal chord, particularly in a courageous and tender final act. The film and the women impart a fearless survey that confronts the 100-year history of cinema’s male gaze. Even as we expect women to be more liberated than ever before, the stories of Venus offer a complex, nuanced, and often inspiring perspective.(AS)