There's a pulsing energy and a desire to be free that fuels Celine Sciamma's latest film Girlhood. Set in a banlieue of Paris, the film follows the life of Marieme, a black teenager who drops out of high school then joins a gang of girls (the bande de filles of the film's French title). A white director, Sciamma has been criticised for making a film that claims to speak of the experiences of black women. She's defended herself by saying that 'it's not about what it's like to be a black girl, it's about what it's like to be a girl.'
That this story is universal came through strongly: this might be a film rooted in a specific time (mobile phones, shopping malls, fast food chains) and location (mostly set in the towering blocks of flats that gaze towards Paris), but it's the universality of what it's like to negotiate growing up that sings true. Sciamma captures Marieme's easy intimacy with her sister, the mysterious thrill of first love and the the joy of being silly with friends – they dance on the metro, get all dressed up as if to go out, but stay in and sing, a memorable sequence set to Rihanna's Diamonds.
Behind this there's a bleaker narrative: male violence, few job prospects, bullying, intimidation, stealing, drug dealing, fights. If I had a quibble with this film, it would be that Marieme's trajectory seems like an easy cliché, a predictable path based on banlieue stereotyping.Yet that overarching storyline didn't seem to be the point of the film. That was to capture what it feels like to be a girl. And throughout I kept on remembering how I felt as a teenager. How intense certain moments can seem, how exciting it feels to be alive, how frustrating it is when reality doesn't match your dreams.
In the final scene, we are left looking at Marieme - superbly played by Karidja Touré, making her acting debut - in tears. But then resolution takes hold in her eyes. She is off. We don't know where to, whether she will prosper or flounder, but, she has, at least for the moment, her courage and her freedom.
