The poor; the lost; the malfunctioning. Before Céline Sciamma’s superb Girlhood (Bande de filles) my life seemed complete without knowing about rootless girls from immigrant families groping ...

By David Rooney Chief Film Critic Sciamma and her cinematographer ... Where many filmmakers would have underlined the bleaker, harsher aspects, Girlhood presents the characters’ grim reality ...

The director's approach is intimate and observational. The film is about friendship, shifting hierarchies and the many small decisions its main character, Marieme (Karidja Touré), has to make on ...