'Girlhood' - banlieues 20 years on from 'La Haine' (Sight & Sound Article)

From the moment it premiered at last year's Cannes Film Festival, Bande de Filles, or Girlhood, was a homegrown hit.

The film - "a work of cinematic art" according to The Guardian - made more than £1m (1,346 euros) at the French box office, was nominated for four prestigious Cesar awards and secured an international film release. 

Girlhood is the story of a black teenager, Marieme, who lives in the vast banlieues, or suburbs, of Paris. With a dead-end future in front of her, she forms a relationship with a group of other young girls.

None of its leads, including Parisienne Karidja Toure who plays Marieme, had ever acted before - a consequence, says director Celine Sciamma, of her not being able to find enough professional black actresses for the roles.

"We were looking for four months," she recalls, "with a casting director and two assistants. We basically went everywhere.

"We went to agencies, but there were very few black girls. And then we went in to theatre classes and high schools, but we met most of our cast randomly on the street.

"We had to invent a group, with its alchemy and energy. But we also needed girls with wit, who were able to improvise, because some of the scenes required it.

"All the girls are non-professionals, whereas all the boys had already been on screen. That says something about the representation of black women in cinema."

Toure, 21, was asked to audition as she sat outside a restaurant in Paris's 14th arrondissement. "At first I thought the casting process was a little strange," she admits.

"But there aren't many black actresses in Paris, so they had to do it that way. You know, black teenagers in Paris, boys and girls, don't watch French movies.

"When you watch French films, you don't see many black characters. So we boycott them, and watch American movies instead.

"During the casting there were around 300 girls, who all have dreams about being actresses. But I guess we don't really believe we can do it, because we don't see many others doing it."

Source: bbc.co.uk/news