About

Girlhood is a confronting and powerful coming-of-age story about a young woman who rejects the pathways of education, work and marriage to regain control of her identity.

Marieme (Karidja Touré) is an African-French teenager living on a housing estate in the outer suburbs of Paris. After being told that she does not have the grades to attend high school, Marieme finds herself doomed to follow the path of her mother as a night-shift cleaner. After meeting a local girl gang, Marieme adopts a new identity as ‘Vic’ and is empowered by the group to assert her physical presence and regain control of her situation.

In contrast to the harsh realities faced by the female characters, Céline Sciamma interweaves delicate and intimate moments into the story that collapse the thresholds between the characters’ private and public lives. These moments are punctuated by the film’s soundtrack, developed by Sciamma’s long standing collaborator, Jean-Baptiste de Laubier (also known as 'Para One'). As the final instalment of Sciamma’s coming-of-age trilogy (that includes Water Lilies 2007 and Tomboy 2011), Girlhood 2014 is a tale of bravery and survival that demonstrates the courage that it takes to fight against fate.