‘The Girls We Want’ review: Inner-city kids fumble in Marseille-set debut

Dir: Prïncia Car. France. 2025. 93mins

A group of youngsters from inner-city Marseille is thrown into disarray when someone returns after a long absence in the vérité drama The Girls We Want. This directorial debut from Prïncia Car follows in the footsteps of her earlier shorts like Barcelona (2019), all products of her ’alternative film school’ in the Mediterranean port city which she established for those without easy access to an arts education. The resulting feature has moments of documentary-like truth but, especially in its final third, also a tendency to be well-intentioned rather than well-written.

A tendency to be well-intentioned rather than well-written

The film premieres in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and should appeal to festivals that screened Jean-Bernard Marlin’s Marseille-set 2018 Critics’ Week title Shéhérazade, which had a similarly authentic, non-pro feel (and shares Kader Benchoudar in a supporting role). 

The first two acts follow goody two-shoes Omar (Housam Mohamed), of Comoran origins. He’s a burly teddy bear of a young man who has been handed the keys to a Marseilles neighbourhood social centre over the summer as a sort of experiment. It’s easy to see why, because he’s great with both the attending kids and his group of peers who help him out. 

To complete the picture of someone who lucked out in life, Omar is head-over-heels in love with Yasmine (Leïla Haïchour, doing a lot in an underwritten role), who he intends to marry, though they are waiting to have sex to keep things ‘special’ between them (she’s only 17). Yasmine is often at Omar’s side, though his crew is otherwise all male and the guys’ hormonal braggadocio is not reined in when Yasmine is around. It’s clear that the rather black-and-white way in which men — though, pointedly, not Omar — look at girls is a subject that’s important for Car, who lets Yasmine occasionally question the guys’ behaviour in a rather didactic way. (It is also more prominent in the English title than in the original Les filles désir, taken from a song title from Swiss chanteuse Vendredi sur Mer that’s on the soundtrack.) 

When free spirit Carmen (Lou Anna Hamon) enters the picture, things change. She’s been absent for seven years, during which she worked as a prostitute (though she only looks like she’s in her early twenties). She has come back to the centre with a promise to better her life, yet he boys struggle to welcome her or consider her as anything but a possible hook-up. When Omar comes through as the reliable friend who makes an effort, Yasmine isn’t sure how to react to all this, which is the starting point for the plot twists to come.  

Though the screenplay is technically credited to Car and Léna Mardi, they were helped by a long list of collaborators that includes the principal actors. This ensures that the characters’ world feels authentic and their dialogues ring true. Where the film runs into trouble is in its overarching structure and the way in which the writing lacks complexity and balance. There’s a tendency to overstate some things, for example, while shying away from others (in the latter category is Omar’s big moment, lost in an ellipsis).

For too long, Omar is someone who always seems to know how to handle his issues; he’s so nice as to be rather boring. But when he does finally commit a faux pas, he suddenly isn’t even the protagonist of his own film anymore. Yasmine and Carmen are supporting characters until they are not, and it is obvious that no groundwork has been laid for this sudden shift in perspective. A hyperactive piano score strains to compensate for underpowered character work. It makes the final third of the film feel emotionally detached from what came before, and its swerve into different territory not surprising so much as baffling. 

Production values and acting are solid, with the fluid cinematography courtesy of Raphaël Vandenbussche (Eat the Night) a standout.