SYNOPSIS

17-year-old Prudence is suddenly alone and adrift in the family apartment. She meets Marilyne, a high school misfit who introduces her to the illegal race circuit of Rungis where souped-up mopeds and muscle bikes race against each other, undaunted by danger. Fascinated by Reynald, Franck and the other guys from the Rungis clique, Prudence tries to find a place for herself by passing off her loneliness as freedom.

PROGRAM NOTE

 Alone in her flat days after the death of her mother,
 her sister off on her own and her father in Canada,
 Prudence is looking for a distraction that she finds
 in the world of motorcycle racing. We all mourn
 differently but Prudence is not mourning after the
 death of her mother. It is because she does not know
 how to mourn. Although mourning and teen crisis
 are frameworks for the story, the film does not depict
 mourning as something spontaneous and teen crisis
 as something to overcome. Prudence looks up to
 those in the racing circuit and desires an opportunity
 to fit in with a group of others even if she is only
 becoming an object of sexual desire. Her behavior,
 only seen as teenage rebellion to others, is one of
 the banal things she must explore in her life such as
 family, religion, music, and friendship to make sense of
 what is going on. The film slowly looks at the process
 of Prudence understanding who she is and eventually
 learning how to mourn. It is worth noting that even in
 the quiet and static scenes that make a contrast with
 the fast and noisy motorcycle racing scenes, Léa
 SEYDOUX beautifully captures a confused 17-year-old
 girl and delivers nuanced performance, emoting with
 the slightest glance or turn of the head, and that the
 film is accompanied by gradually increasing music
 focusing on melody in every important scene.
 [CHOI Jinah]