Girls Will Be Girls

Audience Award, World Cinema Dramatic, 2024 Sundance Film Festival

GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS follows Mira, the first female student appointed to Head Prefect at a rigorous boarding school in the Himalayas. Mira’s new role also provides an opportunity for a budding romance with Sri, a new male student with a worldly background. But it’s a romance that must be kept secret as the school is against co-ed fraternizing. Mira also keeps her relationship hidden from her mother, Anila, who seems ambivalent about them dating but becomes strangely and suspiciously fascinated by her beau.

Mira proves a rare guide for a coming-of-age tale. Despite her lack of worldliness, she is wildly perceptive, calls out lies, and is unashamed of her sexual desires. However her brains and bravery do not make her immune to a culture of misogyny. As the film progresses, the title reveals different implications for its male counterpart: girls will be girls…. because they cannot become independent adults; girls will be girls… because even with power, they will never be equals.

– Laura Skokan