In ‘Girls Will Be Girls,’ Women Find Refuge in One Another

“Come on girls! Left, left, left, right, left!” It’s a military drill, you think, only for the black screen to open up to a group of boarding school kids lined up in a fenced-in area overlooking breathtaking mountains. One girl, with her hair in a long bob, looks especially worried. But she shouldn’t be. It becomes clear that the newest head prefect — whom administrators have chosen to oversee both the boys and girls — is no one else but her: Mira Kishore. And she’s made history because it’s the first time the school has chosen a girl as head prefect.

Over two hours, Indian director Shuchi Talati’s feature film debut gnaws at your sense that something is amiss. This is a school where teachers are constantly policing the women — don’t wear your skirts too short, roll up your socks to cover your shins, don’t talk to boys — but feel the best response to misbehaving boys is to ignore it. Though Talati doesn’t offer any easy solutions (how could she?), the film points to the treasures often right in front of you.