In 2020, the moving documentary “Adolescentes” immerses the viewer in the daily life of Emma and Anaïs. Last year, director Sébastien Lifshitz gave news of the two friends, who confided on their side on the consequences of the health crisis.
teenage girls : a moving documentary rewarded by 3 César
After having devoted a documentary to the feminist activist Thérèse Clerc, the director Sébastien Lifshitz signs a poignant work with teenage girls. For five years, he films the daily life of Emma and Anaïs, together in college in Brive, in Corrèze. From their 13 to their 18 years, these two friends with opposite temperaments share their love stories, the pressure of exams and their desires for the future, moving away and finding each other over time.
Along their respective paths, teenage girls reveals their reactions to major events like the attacks of January and November 2015, or the presidential elections of 2017. Nominated in six categories for the César in 2021, the feature film leaves with the trophies for Best Sound, Best Editing and Best Documentary.
Well-deserved awards for this film which manages to immerse the viewer in the intimacy of these two friends, to prevail in their upheavals, without ever giving up its modesty. Asked by West France after the ceremony, Sébastien Lifshitz is delighted that his project has received “two awards usually dedicated to fiction: the Césars for editing (Tina Baz) and sound (Yolande Decarsin)”. The director also takes advantage of this interview to give news of Emma and Anaïs.
What happens to Emma and Anaïs?
At the end ofteenage girls, the friends both get their baccalaureate and celebrate this excellent news. The film ends with a leap into the future and the unknown. While Anaïs is about to leave for Limoges, Emma is getting ready to move to Paris. Moved by their separation, they promise each other that they will meet again during a discussion at the edge of the water. And they did keep their word, as Sébastien Lifshitz explains:
Life does everything to separate them and I think it will eventually happen. But today Anaïs and Emma are still close, both accomplices and dog-cat, like in the film: they argue, find each other, and the friendship still holds.
He explains about their development:
Emma continues her film studies in 3e year in Paris VIII. Anaïs messed up a bit, she broke down during her last internship which was to validate her nursing assistant diploma, which she suddenly stopped. I talked a lot with her, I tried to reason with her, I hope she will resume and complete her studies. It happened when his mother had another terrible health problem, which undoubtedly created a fragile context. Anaïs has a good nature, but life keeps knocking.
A score marked by the health crisis
Their complicity can also be felt in several of their joint interviews, including one given to Oh My Mag in June 2021, where they confide in the impact of the health crisis. Anaïs claims to have started it as a couple and to have finished it single. This allows him to enjoy “a little more of (his) youth”. Emma, who seems to be moving towards an acting career, is on her side created a new cocoon in the capital, “more adult”. They both meet in the difficulty of planning because of the Covid-19. Anaïs adds with humor:
Since the health crisis, we have all stopped living, so inevitably when we were young, we expected: “Ah, our twenties are the best years of our lives, you will be able to party”. (…) I am going to be 22 years old and I can no longer go to a nightclub.
