Divines (2016)

I selected this partly for being very different from anything I'd seen lately and partly for having a runtime of less than two hours, which has grown scarce on my Netflix list. The cover image of a girl with a bloodied face did not exactly draw me in, but it did warn me that this wouldn't be much fun.

In a Romani suburb of modern Paris, high school friends Dounia (Oulaya Amamra) and Maimouna (Déborah Lukumuena), unsatisfied with their likely career options, resort to crime. At first they merely shoplift and sell on a black market. Then they persuade irascible drug dealer Rebecca (Jisca Kalvanda) to hire them for various tasks. They enjoy the pay, but it's a dangerous business, and teens aren't known for their cautious decisionmaking....

I should clarify that Dounia is the main character, featured in every scene. A subplot concerns her interactions with Djigui (Kévin Mischel), a dancer she watches in auditions for a stage show. They develop a sort of love-hate relationship, with frequent acts of hostility but an undercurrent of mutual attraction. It's hard to guess what they'll do next.

The title appears to be sarcastic. While Maimouna, daughter of an imam, believes strongly in djinns and the power of curses, neither main girl is religiously faithful or even halfway decent in behavior. Nor are they impressive at anything except maybe deception and/or beauty. Dounia especially does things that benefit nobody. I realize she's the impoverished daughter of a drunken prostitute and keeps getting called "bastard," but that excuse goes only so far. I barely pity those who predictably precipitate the bulk of their own problems.

This being a Netflix release, it gets a TV-MA (with no rating given elsewhere that I can find) for sporadic violence, brief drug use, narrowly missed sexual content, and swearing that may or may not be worse in French. Some of the violence takes the form of riots, reminding me of La Haine. That's one reason I included the "racial" tag; we're to understand that these conflicts are exacerbated by a lack of due integration and equality in France.

Divines at least managed to keep my interest all the way through. With or without sympathy, I could appreciate the intensity of emotions and the perceived realism of the plot. And the rare emphasis on women and girls.