This first feature from French director Anne-Sophie Birot explores the harsh coming of age of two teenage girls, lifelong friends, who are not only losing their childhood, they are losing each other as well. Gwen lives by the sea with her parents. Lise has been coming for summer holidays with her mother (Marie Rivière) and two sisters for many years and the girls have been best friends. On the cusp of adulthood, their ripening sexuality is a major source of confusion and yearning. Gwen has leapfrogged over Lise in physical maturity, has a boyfriend, and is gaining a reputation as a fast girl on the beach.

With aching realism, and not without humor and tenderness, Birot takes us through some painful days as Gwen acts out her opposing needs to flaunt her sexuality and at the same time, retain a childlike connection to her parents. When her father Alain (Pascal Elso) loses his livelihood as a fisherman because he doesn't have the money to fix his father's ancient boat motor, she feels the sting of being left out and wants to be more important to her parents. Her mother Celine (Pascale Bussières) takes a job in a shoe store to make ends meet.

Lise by contrast has no memory of her father who left his family 10 years earlier. Her mother receives news that he has been killed in an accident and they won't go to the seaside this year. His death leaves her mother emotionally unavailable to Lise who takes off on her own to Gwen's seaside town.

Once together, a distance between the girls begins to show and widens as Lise's desire for Gwen complicates the muddy enigma of growing up. Now out of work, Alain spends more time at home alone with Lise, a perilous situation. Gwen, no longer much interested in her friend, leaves Lise behind to spend time with her boyfriend or seductively flirt with other boys. Alain is somewhat childlike himself, clinging to his fantasy of a fisherman's life instead of looking for a land job. He can also be a mean drunk. The shifting relationships are not only between Gwen and Lise, but also Alain's with Lise, and Alain and Celine's.

The complexities of relationships, the losses and longings of growing up, are exquisitely drawn, with delicate performances from all. Growing pains and family pitfalls are revealed in the smallest everyday moments. Hot newcomer Isild Le Besco (Bye Bye Babylon) plays Gwen with unabashed confidence and Karen Alyx is a perfect physical match for the subtle, more elusive Lise. Gwen is a girl who acts impulsively, Lise a fragile soul whose needs remain agonizingly unmet. Both girls get a brutal shove into the grown up world.

Islid Le Besco: Gwen	Karen Alyx: Lise
Director: Anne-Sophie Birot