A 21st-century 'Rosetta' with the aesthetic of 'Epic Nails'

Liane (Malou Khebizi), the protagonist of Diamond in the rough, exudes an energy very similar to that of Rosetta, the character in the Dardenne brothers' film of the same name, which forged a new standard of social cinema for the 21st century. She is also a working-class girl willing to do anything to get the job she yearns for, and whose drive drives the entire film forward. But while Rosetta was content with a stable job, Liane aspires to become "the French Kim Kardashian."

In her first feature film, selected in the official competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, Agathe Reidinger updates the archetype of the suburban girl to adapt it to current concerns. Liane represents an experience of femininity marked by the supposed democratization of beauty and social ascension offered by networks and television. The protagonist of Diamond in the rough She's an expert at taking care of her image and adapting to the new aesthetic canon that she has in excess, from the sinuosity of her body curves to the nail art, her trademark. The investment of time and money that Liane makes in her own appearance, duly mediated through her social networks, seems to germinate when she is called to participate in a reality show.

With the complicity of her lead actress, a splendid Malou Khebizi, Riedinger offers an authentic and rarely seen snapshot of the new culture of femininity that triumphs among girls from all social strata. The film also escapes certain imaginaries of the metropolitan working-class suburb by being set on the outskirts of the Provençal town of Fréjus. On the other hand, it is somewhat predictable how it inscribes the protagonist's trajectory in a narrative around the dangers that excessive exposure and visibility on social networks entail.