With Portrait of Lady on Fire French director Céline Sciamma established herself as one of the most exciting and prominent filmmakers working. For those who have followed her career they will know that she has developed to this position through a series of groundbreaking films: groundbreaking because they foreground female friendship and desire with a cinematic storytelling which is as refreshing as it is enthralling. She also captures the frailties, intensities and insecurities of youth particularly in her early films and writing for other directors. We've created Céline Sciamma - Portrait of a Filmmaker on Fire - a mini season of her work you can enjoy online.

Céline Sciamma (Water Lilies, Tomboy, Portrait of a Lady on Fire) continues her exploration of female youth with her triumphant third film Girlhood, which follows Marieme (outstanding newcomer Karidja Touré), a 16-year old growing up on one of the dicey banlieue neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Paris.

Terrorised by her older brother and rejected by high school, she falls in with a gang of three tough, leather-jacketed local girls led with cool authority by Lady. Here she learns to steal, fight, drink, and – above all – stand up for her herself, acknowledge her desires, and have fun. With the gang she feels brave, protected and understood.

Girlhood manages to take two of film’s most contemporary themes – a teenage girl’s coming of age and gang culture – and avoid all of the clichés, making you feel like you’ve never seen either of them before on screen. Riveting and authentic and set to a punchy soundtrack of electropop and hip hop, it celebrates the energy and passion of young women and sisterhood.

Our cinema Curator, Mark Cosgrove says:

"Sciamma reframed Paris’s working class neighbourhoods and gave on screen presence to the city’s multicultural sisterhood. You could not but be moved by the joyous defiant dancing scene to Rihanna’s Diamonds."

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