Sisterhood

Best friends Amina, Djeneba and Zineb grew up in an HLM, a French acronym for the lower-income housing project, or tower blocks on the outskirts of so many French cities. Now that they are 15, the close friendship still exists, even though Amina has moved to a slightly better neighbourhood with her parents. For some time now, Zineb has been sexually harassed by Zak, a friend of her drug-dealing brother. Resigned, she puts up with it, while Djeneba does not take it too seriously. But Amina wants it to stop. At a party, she secretly films how Zak harasses her friend and then posts the video on Instagram under the account name HLM Pussy. This has major consequences.

With this energetic feature debut, which recalls Céline Sciamma's Girlhood, director Nora el Hourch shines her light on issues such as the position of women in different communities, sexual violence and the contradiction between poverty and wealth, and what all that means for how you view the world.