Girl

In Girl, words are not necessary. The characters seem to understand each other with a movement, an expression or a sigh. Debuting director Adura Onashile and actors Déborah Lukumuena and Le'Shantey Bonsu have made a convincing, intimate portrait with this film. Together, they tell a story about migration, trauma and the healing power of care and empathy.

Twenty-five-year-old Grace (Lukumuena) and her 11-year-old daughter Ama (Bonsu) navigate their way through a life built on trauma. Together they live in a small Glasgow flat. Grace is overprotective, ignoring all well-meaning help from those around her and carefully shutting herself off from the outside world. After all, she is convinced she cannot trust anyone. But Ama's curiosity and her need to develop breaks open their isolated life and forces Grace to come to terms with a past she so desperately wants to forget.