Les filles désir

Everything is orderly that summer in Marseille for Omar and his group, respected youth-center counselors in their neighborhood. In their world, the rules are well established: women are divided into two categories—those you sleep with and those you marry. Until Carmen returns... A childhood friend who has escaped prostitution, Carmen unsettles the group’s certainties. Her presence brings to light the contradictions, desires and fragilities of a world in which everyone seemed assigned a place.

Prïncia Car’s first feature film, co-written with Léna Mardi and developed through collective work with young non-professional actors from the northern districts of Marseille, Les Filles désir is part of a committed artistic and social approach. Informed by improvisation and collective writing, the film, selected for the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes, accurately captures a youth searching for meaning, torn between social models and desires for emancipation.

An exploration of gender relations without Manichaeism. A film that brings forth desires whose wings grow beyond imposed frameworks. A possibility of dreaming then takes shape—a way of existing without asking permission.