Inspired by the true story of high-school students in a Massachusetts fishing town who made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together, 17 Girls, set in a French seaside village, intelligently examines, but never judges, the motivations of its adolescent protagonists. In their first film, sisters Delphine and Muriel Coulin explore the dynamics of a clique of girls led by Camille, who announces to her classmates during gym class that she’s expecting a baby. The members of her inner circle announce that they will get pregnant, too, in solidarity. 17 Girls isn’t interested in providing answers to what ultimately can’t be explained; instead of making sociological pronouncements, the film more intriguingly observes the teenagers’ often contradictory concepts of freedom, the future, parenthood, and autonomy.
Posted First In: Film Calendar
Originally published at genderstudies.nd.edu.