Girlhood (2014)

January 1, 2016 4:59 PM

Bande des Filles: oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of 3 free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom.
posted by ChuraChura (5 comments total)

I just watched this (on Netflix) and really liked it. The scene of the girls dancing to Diamonds was really beautiful. Karidja Toure was wonderful - she reminded me a lot of Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone. Aminatou Sow, who's one of the people on Call Your Girlfriend, is the person I heard about this from originally, and what she said struck me. Even if this is not the happiest movie (and paints a very depressing picture of les banlieues and race in Paris), it was kind of incredible to watch a movie about black girlhood in a way that seemed unsentimental, unvarnished, and not exploitative or judgmental about what Marieme and the other filles were doing. I also liked this interview with Karidja Toure and Assa Sylla.
posted by ChuraChura at 5:05 PM on January 1, 2016 [2 favorites]

I thought it was a great movie, complicated in all the right ways. The acting was amazing, as was the physical setting of the banlieues.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:16 PM on January 1, 2016

Watched it quite a while back but remember it being very well done. Not overly romanticized or preachy as these types of stories tend to get very often. The Diamonds-scene was, by the way, selected by Slant Magazine as one of the best movie scenes in 2015.
posted by sapagan at 12:39 PM on January 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Saw this last spring at a festival and loved it. The lead actress is really amazing in her role, going from shy nerdy girl to street tough. Still annoyed that the American distributor decided to use the name "Girlhood" to try to link it go Linketter's also great but totally unrelated movie.
posted by octothorpe at 6:58 AM on January 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Just added this to my Netflix queue after seeing it on this list of 2015's best at Out Magazine and realizing it was from the same director who did the amazing Tomboy. Can't wait to see it this weekend.
posted by mediareport at 8:00 AM on January 5, 2016