Divines

2016 [FRENCH]

Action / Crime / Drama

16
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 84% · 19 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 74% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 7.3/10 10 10823 10.8K

friendship dancer street gang paris, france ghetto drugs

Plot summary

In a ghetto where religion and drug trafficking rub shoulders, Dounia has a lust for power and success. Supported by Maimouna, her best friend, she decides to follow in the footsteps of Rebecca, a respected dealer. But her encounter with Djigui, a young, disturbingly sensual dancer, throws her off course.

Director

Houda Benyamina Photo
Houda Benyamina

Top cast

Mounir Margoum Photo
Mounir Margoum as Cassandra
Josué Thermilus Photo
Josué Thermilus as Danseur
Tania Dessources Photo
Tania Dessources as Madame Labutte
Déborah Lukumuena Photo
Déborah Lukumuena as Maimouna
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU 720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
984.62 MB
1280*538
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  it  de  pt  
23.976 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 1
1.98 GB
1920*808
French 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  it  de  pt  
23.976 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 2
981.91 MB
1280*534
French 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  it  de  pt  
24 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds 2
1.97 GB
1920*800
French 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  it  de  pt  
24 fps
1 hr 47 min
Seeds ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by PeterPan158

Raw emotional roller-coaster of clueless kids

Wow! What I expected to be a medicare classic sentimental a girl-from-the-ghetto story, turned up to be an extraordinary experience of incredibly acted, beautifully complex, unconventionally artistic movie. If this is the director's first feature movie, I am genuinely looking for next one.The story is about a 15-year-old Muslim girl called Dounia and her black friend Maimouna that both grow up in a poor migrant superb of Paris.They have both different characters and family situation, but they both share their insecurities and hopes with each other openly and you can feel the strength of their influence on each other even when it seems like they paths split.They are both clueless teenage girls, that feel like they deserve more in life than what they were given by their parents or society. And it's Dounia that is more willing to risk and fight for that better future. The relationship dynamic is fascinating to watch and very well acted. There is also interesting and potentially romantic (?) relationship between Dounia and a guy who is a dancer, and whose artistic aspirations in dancing is confusing her (and her own value system). And what's more, her friend Maimonua doesn't seem to be so impressed with him as Dounia, so she acts very ambiguously toward him and even sees him as weak, even though she is not sure that what she sees as a weakness is actually a weakness after all. This split between her contradictory emotions is amazingly well acted (in my opinion by a rising star) young actress Oulaya Amamra.The ghetto, lack of meaning, lack of guidance and respected adult authorities, lack of social (economic) opportunities and feeling of being an alien in someone else's society is the true antagonist of the story.It drives Dounia (and Maimonua follows her in admiration) to make naive and bad choices, but at the same time you feel something very authentic and even admirable in her drive to find the most accessible way out of her frustrating situation. As there seems to be no adult that understands her feelings, she relies on her best friend Maimonua feedback and evaluation of her. But they both can only know, what they can learn from their surrounding culture and significant adults around themselves - who also seem clueless and desperate, so why should Dounia trust them at all? She has an immature drunk mother and no father. So when she drops out of school and start selling drugs, the world looks like it belongs to her (and her best friend), unable to see inevitable consequences of the path she puts herself and their friendship in.And as the movie progress, you ask yourself how much she can get away with and will she finally learn harsh life lessons on her own or will the unusual relationship with the dancer help her to see beyond distorted values she desperately tries to believe in? It is a matter of taste, I guess, but a Golden globe nomination, 10 minutes standing ovation and subsequent win at Cannes festival is, in my opinion, well deserved. Besides I read that the "self-thought" director Houda Benyamina herself grew up in the type of suburb she captures in this movie, so you can't accuse her of over-dramatization or stereotyping.I've seen A Man called Ove (2016) and Toni Erdmann (2016) which are both nominated for 2017 Oscars for foreign movies, but I think Divines deserves it more. I personally, put Divines to my Top 2016 list of movies.Highly recommend.
Reviewed by

Reviewed by wickedmikehampton 8 / 10

So wow - one of my top French films

Oulaya Amamra, the lead who is the young sister of the director, is enormously promising in this brutal coming-of-age tale, Add her counterpart, Déborah Lukumuena and you one of my favourite best dialogue/friendship duets: "He eyed you up like a Bic Mac during Ramadan."

'Divines' joins the lofty 'Les Misérables' and 'La Haine' as our best views into French inequality. It's possible that those three equal or exceed the best ghetto crime dramas that the USA has to offer (I'm excluding 'The Wire' and 'The Corner' because those dirty beauties are series).

Wonderfully, 'Divines' gives us a female perspective, going much deeper than Céline Sciamma did with 'Girlhood'.

'Divine' made me laugh and excited but the inevitable collapse gut-wrenched me because I know that darkness is a reflection of our real world where inequality, for most, is a living death sentence. That's the present and intensifying world hierarchy.

It's unfair to viewers that Director Houda Benyamina's debut hasn't had a follow-up the past 6 years. The good news is that she has received funding for 'All For One' which will hopefully appear in 2023.

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