29/03/2022 - Director Susanne Regina Meures’ third compelling feature opens our eyes to the ruthless and uncompromising world of social media

Presented as a world premiere at the prestigious CPH:DOX, Girl Gang [+see also:
interview: Susanne Regina Meures
film profile] by German director and former student of Zurich’s ZHdK Susanne Regina Meures doesn’t hold back in her behind-the-scenes depiction of the life of an influencer, an existence light years away from how the public would picture it. Marked at each and every turn by a (deliciously) angst-inducing aura, Susanne Regina Meures’ third feature film ventures among the folds of the social media system, where reality melts away into the ether to become a “nothing” sustained by likes and rictus smiles.

Known and appreciated by audiences and critics alike on account of her previous films - Raving Iran [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2016), which triumphed at the Visions du Réel Festival in the category of the most innovative Swiss feature films, and Saudi Runaway [+see also:
film review
film profile] (2020), which was presented in the 2020 Berlinale’s Panorama section, among other events - Susanne Regina Meures is returning to the limelight with Girl Gang, a grotesque fairy tale, of sorts, about a fourteen-year-old influencerfrom Berlin and her fierce and adoring fans. Having previously tackled Tehran’s underground techno scene and the violent and oppressive patriarchy of Saudi Arabia, Susanne Regina Meures is stepping behind the scenes of a new world, that of social media, and the troubling secrets it hides.

Leonie (aka Leoobalys) and her family have allowed the director’s camera to become an integral part of their lives over a four-year period, acting as an impartial judge which doesn’t shy away from the truth, no matter how dreadful it is. In Leonie’s world, the spontaneous, carefree nature of adolescence is replaced by anxiety and obsessive self-control. In this respect, the scene where we see the protagonist frenetically tapping on her mobile screen in order to photoshop her face is especially worrying and true to life. It’s a brutal yet mechanical gesture, a reckless assault on a body which now belongs only to the web.

Stripped of her “true” identity, this Berlin-born teen has decided to wear the spangly mask of a social media star, a character addicted to adrenaline, “fame” and designer trainers. Not blessed with any real talent other than rare grit and determination, Leonie has built an empire from the confines of her little bedroom on the outskirts of the German capital. Closely, if not incredibly closely followed by her parent-managers who have quit their own jobs in order to boost their daughter’s influencer career, Leonie is as if imprisoned in an alternate reality which has morphed into a prison as the years have gone by. By way of a one-way dialogue fuelled by frustration and adoration, Susanne Regina Meures compares an influencer’s life to that of her biggest fan: Melanie, a lonely young woman who lives her life by proxy through her heroine, just like a modern-day Cinderella. The use of mystical and ritualistic classical music in scenes where the girls are going crazy in the presence of their 2.0 idol are especially interesting and powerful in this respect.

Girl Gang allows us to observe, both captivated and horrified, Leonie’s life made up of dreams and illusions, excessive control and a search for impossible freedom; a claustrophobic world with no room for human interaction. As Leonie’s mum reminds us, the “only” sacrifice she has to make in exchange for fame is to not have any friends or meaningful relationships outside of the influencer world. It’s a negligible sacrifice in her eyes, as if her daughter were now nothing more than a product.

Girl Gang is produced by Christian Frei Filmproduktion and SRF Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen, with international sales in the hands of Rise and Shine.

(Translated from Italian)