French director, Céline Sciamma was intrigued by charismatic, energetic, fierce groups of young girls floating around in Paris. She wanted to understand them. So she wrote and directed Girlhood to figure it out.
Girlhood, otherwise known as Bande De Filles, is a raw drama focusing on 16 year old Mariame (Karidja Touré), who lives on the outskirts of Paris faced with technical school or a cleaning job after having to repeat Troisieme, disqualifying her from high school.
Sciamma presents Mariame's defiance against what she views as the banal, disempowering existence of following rules. Marieme strikes out on her own, changes her name to Victory and joins a ratpack of vivacious, rule-breaking teenage girls who wear denim and black leather exclusively.
There are various phases of Mariame that we see. Firstly, she's a do-gooder who plays gridiron. Secondly, she's a rebel in a sisterhood: smoking weed, shoplifting and getting into fights. Then she inevitably starts screwing up and going down more serious roads. Each phase is markedly detached from the others by long, lingering camera shots of nothing, as well as drastic shifts in clothing and style. In each section, Mariame/Victory changes her look, her identity and way of being until she finds the right fit.
This film is the type of thing you wish you'd seen before going to Paris. It shows the real Paris, the Paris with grit, the Paris where people holler at each other on the subway, the multicultural Paris, the city where not everything looks perfect. It's a truly honest, original script, visually convincing and unlike so many other coming-of-age films.
In cinemas 13 Aug
