Sylvie Verheyde’s precisely, passionately observed drama is a semiautobiographical story about a socially isolated 11-year-old girl attending her first year of secondary school in 1977. Raised on the outskirts of Paris in a working-class bar and rooming house run by her affectionate but aloof parents Sergio (Benjamin Biolay) and Rosy (Karole Rocher), Stella (an astonishingly natural Léora Barbara) has grown up in a tough, violent world of adults, setting her aimlessly apart from the radically different world she enters at her new and affluent middle school. At first rebellious in the face of class arrogance, a new friendship with a gifted classmate (Melissa Rodriguez) coupled with a deteriorating home life inspire Stella to cling to the opportunities her school provides even as she struggles to adapt to its distinct culture and codes. With a fierce fidelity to time and place as well as the perspective of her subject, Verheyde registers the subtle but profound shift from Stella’s rudderless childhood toward budding adulthood.

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Written by Sylvie Verheyde. Photographed by Nicolas Gaurin. With Léora Barbara, Benjamin Biolay, Karole Rocher. (103 min, Films Distribution)