Girls Will Be Girls

It’s typical of the deadpan realism that the India-born and New York-based film-maker Shuchi Talati brings to a movie that sits neatly between Diary of a Teenage Girl and Imitation of Life, and yet is also culturally and painfully specific.

Talati’s work with her young cast is first-rate; this sensitively handled coming-of-age picture deservedly won an audience prize at Sundance earlier this year.

It's beautifully done.

There’s something almost Malory Towers-like about the way the school is portrayed, with its idiosyncrasies, its own language and way of doing things. As for Panigrahi, it’s hard to believe this is her first lead role.

Girls Will Be Girls is a modest work, but like some of the greatest films, it comes to vivid life before our eyes.

Despite the film losing some momentum on the home stretch, this can’t take away from its overall message – there’s no stronger bond than that between a mother and her daughter.

This is a complex and remarkably insightful film, as writer-director Shuchi Talati draws on her own experiences, adding details that bring scenes to life with unusual subtlety.

Girls Will Be Girls, the feature debut of writer/director Shuchi Talati, is a lovely, involving, coming-of-age, first love and mother/daughter relationship film with a hard centre, though it can seem slow.

Captured with handheld, intimate close-ups and sound design, Mira's exploration feels non-judgmental. Talati doesn't seek to either glorify or vilify, letting the camera simply sit on minuscule moments of analysis, closeness, forgiveness, and betrayal.

Intriguing character dynamics drive this deliberately paced yet quietly perceptive coming-of-age drama about how a teenager’s sexual awakening clashes with oppressive patriarchal traditions.