I watched the film today and almost everything is in context of these girls not actually understanding anything about sexuality or being confronted with it.
The girl who takes the selfie does so out of rebellious anger after being mocked for wearing "childish underwear" (normal underwear for an 11 year old). It causes a boy at her school to call her a slut and her friends to disassociate with her because they know it's too far.
There is no "webcam porn". They chat with an older boy one of the girls likes while pretending to be an older girl. One of them turns the camera on and once the boy sees it's the girl he immediately leaves because he has no interest in an 11 year old.
The girls tease the newbie into taking a video of the boy mentioned above in the school toilets so they can see his penis. This comes after a conversation about penises and sex where it's clear they have no understanding how sex works.
The girl who finds and blows up the used condom doesn't know it's a condom. She thinks it's a balloon. When one of the girls realizes what it is they all mock her by saying she's dirty and full of bacteria now. The next scene has the girls literally washing her mouth with soap to prevent her from getting aids.
I could go on and on. Two dudes start talking to the girls and the girls love the attention but the dudes immediately walk away when one of the girls spills that they are 11 years old, etc. etc.
Ironically (and I thought this was done very subtle and therefore brilliantly) the only men in the film who are shown to "like what they're seeing" are white. So it actually calls out white pedo culture throughout the film.
Anyway, there are a few scenes that I think the director could've shot differently for better effect. Some of the dance scenes are deliberately filmed like the mature twerk videos the girls try to imitate, and that's where you get most of the close-ups of these girls. I understand the decision when it then shows that video getting thousands of likes on social media (thus boosting the girls' ego's), but the film is actually far more effective when it steps back and shows how awkward the girls look trying to achieve that effect.
A huge part of the film btw is about the main girl struggling with the other end of the extreme. Her family are Muslims from Senegal and her father has decided to take on a second wife. While this weighs heavily on the mother, their old fashioned aunt forces to follow tradition (suppression of the woman in marriage) despite the shame and pain the mother feels. The girl sees and endured similar treatments throughout the film, causing her need to rebel. The constant juxtaposition between the two extremes is a bit heavy handed but does work perfectly for the end.
The girl abandons both of her "costumes", one the skimpy dance outfit for the competition with the girls and the other a traditional dress her father bought for the wedding to his new second wife, and leaves the house dressed like a regular 11 year old, to play a game of jump rope.
In the end I wasn't comfortable with a few bits either, and I think those moments work against the film, but judging the film as a whole those are artistic mistakes in a film that makes the right points.
Side-note: Netflix clearly still doesn't give a fukk and is riding the controversy for what it's worth, even putting the film in the top of the trending section here. On top of that, everything I watch on Netflix is always the original language with subs. This film however for some mysterious reason started with the English dub on. And I fully believe it's on purpose because Netflix wants to feed off the controversy, knowing that the moment people realize they actually put on a French language arthouse film, they will turn that shyt off right away.
I watched the film today and almost everything is in context of these girls not actually understanding anything about sexuality or being confronted with it.
Take this tweet:
The girl who takes the selfie does so out of rebellious anger after being mocked for wearing "childish underwear" (normal underwear for an 11 year old). It causes a boy at her school to call her a slut and her friends to disassociate with her because they know it's too far.
There is no "webcam porn". They chat with an older boy one of the girls likes while pretending to be an older girl. One of them turns the camera on and once the boy sees it's the girl he immediately leaves because he has no interest in an 11 year old.
The girls tease the newbie into taking a video of the boy mentioned above in the school toilets so they can see his penis. This comes after a conversation about penises and sex where it's clear they have no understanding how sex works.
The girl who finds and blows up the used condom doesn't know it's a condom. She thinks it's a balloon. When one of the girls realizes what it is they all mock her by saying she's dirty and full of bacteria now. The next scene has the girls literally washing her mouth with soap to prevent her from getting aids.
I could go on and on. Two dudes start talking to the girls and the girls love the attention but the dudes immediately walk away when one of the girls spills that they are 11 years old, etc. etc.
Ironically (and I thought this was done very subtle and therefore brilliantly) the only men in the film who are shown to "like what they're seeing" are white. So it actually calls out white pedo culture throughout the film.
Anyway, there are a few scenes that I think the director could've shot differently for better effect. Some of the dance scenes are deliberately filmed like the mature twerk videos the girls try to imitate, and that's where you get most of the close-ups of these girls. I understand the decision when it then shows that video getting thousands of likes on social media (thus boosting the girls' ego's), but the film is actually far more effective when it steps back and shows how awkward the girls look trying to achieve that effect.
A huge part of the film btw is about the main girl struggling with the other end of the extreme. Her family are Muslims from Senegal and her father has decided to take on a second wife. While this weighs heavily on the mother, their old fashioned aunt forces to follow tradition (suppression of the woman in marriage) despite the shame and pain the mother feels. The girl sees and endured similar treatments throughout the film, causing her need to rebel. The constant juxtaposition between the two extremes is a bit heavy handed but does work perfectly for the end.
The girl abandons both of her "costumes", one the skimpy dance outfit for the competition with the girls and the other a traditional dress her father bought for the wedding to his new second wife, and leaves the house dressed like a regular 11 year old, to play a game of jump rope.
In the end I wasn't comfortable with a few bits either, and I think those moments work against the film, but judging the film as a whole those are artistic mistakes in a film that makes the right points.
Side-note: Netflix clearly still doesn't give a fukk and is riding the controversy for what it's worth, even putting the film in the top of the trending section here. On top of that, everything I watch on Netflix is always the original language with subs. This film however for some mysterious reason started with the English dub on. And I fully believe it's on purpose because Netflix wants to feed off the controversy, knowing that the moment people realize they actually put on a French language arthouse film, they will turn that shyt off right away.
Agreed, probably not gonna watch it cause the subject doesn't interest me, but nothing I've seen or heard about it seems more extreme than watching Kiddies/Junior Carnival.
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