Céline Sciamma’s third feature, Girlhood, was one of the most anticipated events of this year’s Glasgow Film Festival. Her previous works, Water Lilies and Tomboy, are evocative little films that explore the complexities of youth and sexuality. Girlhood is very much in the same vein, but with a political undercurrent that examines the modern minority experience in France. The film’s narrative is a relatively stock one: innocent but ambitious young woman gets enchanted by the charismatic flash of petty criminal life.
The film follows 16-year-old Marieme (Karidja Touré). Known to her friends as Vic, she sheds multiple skins throughout the film in the name of survival – from dedicated sister, to aggressive girl-gang member, to androgynous hustler – but, as we discover, is uncomfortable in all of them. Touré turns in an intriguing lead performance. Her ability to swing from vulnerable to self-possessed in a single closeup is enchanting and reminiscent of Katie Jarvis’s inspired turn in Fish Tank. She is suppressing a cocktail of conflicting emotions kept bottled-up under a serene, competent facade.
Set in the high-rise communities of the Parisian suburbs, Sciamma doesn’t dwell on stock imagery of Paris tour books; the only glimpse of the Eiffel Tower comes on a crazy golf course and there’s nary a limestone townhouse or icon of gothic architecture in sight. It’s all modernist tower blocks and new builds. When our heroine ventures into Paris she hangs out in the urban expanse of La Defense, malls and hotels. Sciamma is more interested in how young black French women assert themselves outside of male relationships and societal expectations (low wage jobs, stereotypes etc), and she imbues her work with a detached but empathetic quality, mixing vérité with a keen anthropological eye. The camaraderie and intimacy of the female relationships is refreshing and inspired, elevating this intimate portrait to rallying cry for diversity in contemporary European cinema.