Sundance 2024 Review: Girls Will Be Girls

A still from Girls Will Be Girls by Shuchi Talati, an official selection of the World Dramatic Competition at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

Enforcing the rules of a strict boarding school is second nature to Mira who is a extemporary student but a growing sexual attraction to a classmate has her considering disobedience for the first time.    

Considered to be a role model for fellow students, Mira gets named as the prefect at her boarding school locked in the Himalayas at a ceremony that has one a male classmate showing an expression of interest.  And so, a sexual awakening begins with Mira finding the strained relationship with her mother becoming even more complicated as they both find comfort in her boyfriend who has a way of manipulating women in need of being appreciated.

As much as the movie is about a teenager girl succumbing to the laws of attraction, this is really a story about the strained relationship between a mother and daughter.  It is telling that the personal secrets that Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron) and Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) reveal to each other early on are about incidents involving their mothers.  The emergence of Sri allows for a love triangle that serves as a prism to filter the matriarchal conflict that drives the narrative.

Cool colours are found in the school environment which gives it a more institutional aesthetic while warm earth tones are found in the home of Mira creating an inviting environment that feels more like an inner sanctuary.  The camera is treated in handheld style with the movement never getting in the way of the imagery.  The pacing is leisurely as the focus is on internalizing the emotion of the characters rather than having kinetic shouting matches filled with angst and betrayal.

The 2023 Sundance Film Festival takes place January 19–29, 2023, in person and online, and for more information visit sundance.org.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.