Marianne is 16 and her teacher, let's call her the sad result of a privileged white community tells her that she is not going to be admitted to high school. She replaces the role of an absent single mother who works incessantly as a cleaner to support her family. When there is no place where she can feel protected, she gets "adopted" by a girl's band. The morality of her life changes. There is another set of rules by which she plays now. She doesn't question them yet. It's not the new clothes and make up that make her stay, not the coolness, but the "belonging" feeling. Underneath all the decadence that we notice, there is love. One that they are probably still learning how to show. Marianne gets through a series of metamorphosis. Strength in her neighbourhood is gained by immoral devices but we are watching a world that creates its own set of rules. The camera does not approve of them nor does it judge them. It merely observes them maybe with a bit of compassion. At the end we no longer see a girl but a woman. One that can take her own decisions, without allowing exterior forces to change her trajectory. She can now accept her own vulnerability yet be stronger.
Review of Girlhood
