A beautiful, brilliant, moving study of a teenage girl in the Paris projects discovering herself, the city, and the complexity of relationships. At times the film is a little self-consciously staged - and this works beautifully as if to emphasise the universal aspects of these very personal experiences. Music is important, punctuating the film at times close to a sense of the musical numbers of musical theatre; in particular is one scene, as the girls dance and sing along to Rhianna's 'Diamonds' in stolen dresses in a hotel room. It's a beautifully conceived, staged and played scene that is allowed to run the length of the song - a moment of care-free self-identification for the girls without the world's prying eyes to shape them into something other. This latter trap is one the central character repeatedly is drawn to and burned by throughout the film, the periodic briefly extended black screens functioning as marker points for something akin to scene changes as she discovers something new, more dangerous or significant than before. The ending manages to combine deep sadness and some kind of grounded hope against the expanse of the city, Marieme's internal struggle for identity continuing to be played out on a scale at once epic and intimate. An essential and masterful film.
Review of Girlhood
