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‘Une Fille Facile’: Fans happy French film found a home at Netflix and compare Zahia Dehar to Brigitte Bardot

The film was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the SACD Award for Best French-language Film and premiered on Netflix Thursday, August 13

Spoilers for ‘Une Fille Facile’ or ‘An Easy Girl’

Rebecca Zlotowski’s fourth film, ‘Une Fille Facile’ or ‘An Easy Girl’, made its premiere on Netflix on Thursday, August 13. The film was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the SACD Award for Best French-language Film. 

‘Une Fille Facile’ follows and is narrated by Naima (played by newcomer Mina Farid), a 16-year-old who lives in Cannes. During the summer, her cousin Sofia (Zahia Dehar) arrives from Paris with her Chanel bags, her tanned Gallic good looks, her loud sexuality, and a whole lot of affection for her young cousin. 

Naima observes Sofia befriend a suave Brazilian art dealer called Andres (played to perfection by Nuno Lopes). As Sofia and Andres engage in casual romance, Naima befriends Andres’ friend and fixer, Philippe (Benoit Magimel). The four spend several weeks engaging in the rich hedonistic pleasures the French Riviera has to offer. 

It is a beautiful coming-of-age film that imbibes all the aesthetics of European arthouse films but leaves out the often glorified exploitation. Instead, it is an empowering film that questions societal ideas of sexuality, femininity, and agency. 

On Twitter, many seemed happy that the film had finally found a home. A Twitter user wrote, “No Riviera for us this summer, so stream ‘An Easy Girl’, with its easy mix of Rohmer and reality TV — and with a performance from Zahia that Brody rightly calls ‘a coup du cinéma’. (Her Bardot-like diction alone! Worth the price of admission, or of your Netflix subscription.)” The Bardot comparison is hard to miss. It refers to French actor Brigitte Bardot, a noted sex symbol from the 50s and 60s, famous for portraying sexually emancipated women with hedonistic lifestyles. 

Another Twitter user wrote, “[Translated] I've only been holding on to Netflix for so long but unexpectedly, found a surprise waiting and that was 'An Easy Girl', filmed in Cannes and shown at the Cannes festival. It's a fresh film full of subtlety.”

Yet another said, “[Translated] 'Une fille facile', Rebecca Zlotowski's latest, arrives on Netflix inadvertently and sparingly, as usual. It is a splendid film, coming of age, sensitive and relentless criticism of the effect of capitalism on bodies, desires, and aspirations.”

Many commented on how spectacular Zahia Dehar was in her role. “Zahia is officially on international @netflix!! #unefillefacile” wrote a Twitter user.”

The choice of Dehar to play Sofia is important. Dehar was a French-Algerian teenager, just an 18-year-old when she woke up to find her picture on the front of France’s newspapers. She was caught up in an underage prostitution scandal involving members of the national football squad. According to reports, Dehar was an escort to star player Franck Ribéry, and she was just 17 at the time of the incident. 

More than a decade later, Dehar, who could have been tainted with the stigma of the incident all her life, is thriving. “I had the choice between killing myself or going forward. I didn’t want to kill myself,” she said years after the scandal broke. Today, she is an actor, model, and lingerie designer. In that regard, Dehar, who co-wrote the film, also makes it clear that the idea of the film, the title, is not meant to be a pejorative. “It’s a woman who submerges herself in her sexuality like a man. It’s rare to see a woman like Sofia celebrated like that,” Dehar said.

‘Une Fille Facile’ or ‘An Easy Girl’ is available for viewing on Netflix.