Adolescentes

The documentary film is a category apart in the current film landscape as it does not necessarily seek to please and conquer a large audience, but rather to propose a reflection on our current society and specially to bring the spectators to reflect on the meaning of life and the importance of the transmission of knowledge. Winner of the Critics' Prize at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2019, Sébastien Lifshitz's new documentary film Adolescentes follows two young teenage girls from different backgrounds for five years. Far from taking a critical look at this period of carefree life, this film challenges us because it succeeds in capturing to perfection the difficulties of life, the misunderstanding, the revolt of Anais and Emma, the two teenagers whose lives this film follows.

After having directed three feature-length fiction films Presque rien (Come Undone) (2000), Wild Side (2004) and Plein Sud (Going South) (2009), Sébastien Lifshitz seems to have found in the documentary film a much more personal creative axis in which his camera manages to capture our full attention. His way of directing gives the impression of sharing moments in the lives of these two teenage girls. The film Adolescentes knows how to constantly find the right approach to hold our attention and show the universal side of its subject. By following these two teenage girls from the age of 13 to 18, the film paints a modest, funny and moving portrait and perfectly sketches our current era.

Certainly, Adolescentes will not please everyone as it does not seek at any time not to be what it is or to resort to useless and crude effects to mark our memory. On the contrary, the director Sebastien Lifshitz totally masters his subject and delivers us a film in the right and fragile area of time at the same time. We suspect that with an impressive video database, the director must have found the best moments and we can only congratulate not only this film for its excellent editing but also for the great care taken in the photography of Paul Guilhaume and Antoine Parouty.

Teenagers (Little girl)
Written and Directed by Sébastien Lifshitz
Produced by Muriel Meynard
Starring Anais, Emma
Music by Tindersticks
Cinematography: Paul Guilhaume and Antoine Parouty
Edited by Tina Baz
Production companies: Agat Films & Cie, in co-production with Arte France Cinéma and Chaocorp
Distributed by Ad Vitam (France)
Release date: September 9 2020 (France)
Running time: 115 minutes

Viewed on August 1st, 2020 (screener press)