17 GIRLS (Cannes Film Festival International’s Critics Week selection), is Delphine and Muriel Coulin’s provocative debut feature focusing on a group of bored teenage girls who all make an irrevocable pact, a story inspired by a true headline-grabbing case which took place in Massachusetts.

When Camille (Louise Grinberg, The Class) accidentally becomes pregnant, she encourages her friends and fellow high-school classmates to follow suit, so they can raise their children collectively, an act at once unexpected and incomprehensible.  It’s only a matter of time, before seventeen girls in the high school are pregnant and the town is thrown into a world of chaos.  Set in the writer-directors’ small, seaside hometown of Lorient in Brittany, 17 GIRLS is a reflection on adolescence, body image, friendship and the perplexing realities of growing up.

Prior to 17 GIRLS, Delphine (also a novelist) and Muriel Coulin (a documentary director) directed five award-winning short films together. Louise Grinberg previously appeared in Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winner The Class while co-star Roxanne Duran is best known for her role in Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner The White Ribbon. 17 GIRLS’ stunning cinematography is by Jean-Louis Vialard who previously collaborated with Apichatpong Weerasethakul on Tropical Malady.