Lila Says

Synopsis: In his second feature film, director Ziad Doueiri (WEST BEIRUT) takes on themes of race, religion, youth, and sexual bravado. Based on a controversial novel purported to be a 19-year-old Arab's actual diary, this hormonally charged coming-of-age story is set in a dingy, ethnically mixed slum of post-9/11 Marseilles. When we meet Chimo (Mohammed Khouas), he is a self-described loser intent on hanging around with his slacker friends instead of pursuing his talent as a writer. But when Lila (Vahina Giocante)--a 16-year-old Catholic seductress--moves into the ghetto with her crazy, perverted aunt (Edmonde Franchi), she stirs something in Chimo and his depressing community with her angelic face, blonde hair, and impressively lewd language. While Lila will do no more than taunt the rest of the local men with her assets, she singles out Chimo and initiates him into a world filled with sexual desire. In fact, it is on their very first meeting that Lila offers Chimo a peak up her skirt, an invitation made even more appealing by her proclivity for not wearing underwear. By turning a thing as simple and seemingly innocent as a bike ride into a sexual escapade, Lila helps Chimo to see the world in a new way. As Chimo narrates his way through Lila's relentless advances and elaborate sexual fantasies, tension between him and his friends builds to a chilling, inevitable climax that reveals everyone's true colors. From one of its strangely breathtaking opening shots (the camera pans upward as the gloomy alley between two soiled apartment buildings is interrupted by a clothesline's bright hues) to its last, LILA SAYS draws the viewer in with camerawork as seductive and beautiful as its title character.     Source: RottenTomatoes.com