The Daughters of Heaven: a hymn to sorority (review)

Bérangère McNeese observes four fashionable girls managing a daily life punctuated by shoplifting and nocturnal tipping. A stunning first feature film, carried by a quartet of irresistible actresses.

“We couldn’t live without tenderness,” sang the poet. Here is a nice sample, by Bérangère McNeese, who combines, in this first feature film, his two previous shorts (The Sleep of the Amazons and Matryoshkas). It is also sweetness that her heroine (Héloïse Volle), 14 years old, placed in a foster home, gleans where she can. In the predatory arms of his educator, first. In the heights of this “sky”, then – nickname given to the apartment on the eighth floor of an urban bar where a handful of angels born on the wrong side of the fence gather. They have their heads in the clouds, but their feet on the ground; partners in trouble in life and death.

The structure is classic, the outcome obvious, the sentimentality abundant (sensitive souls should also bring a tissue or two). Whatever. The momentum of the film is contained in the small moments. These are the nights spent on mattresses on the floor. Mallorie and Héloïse’s joyful and wet skin-to-skin. Makeup and glitter sessions before going to work in a nightclub. The laughter, the looks, the caressing barbs. In the confinement of the home, intimacy is peeled away, layer by layer. Sorority to the point of dizziness; community until the erasure of the individual.

Because in this united bohemia, we almost forget to exist on our own. There lies the other strength of this learning story, an identity issue: finding the “I” among the “we”. A “we” brilliantly carried by a quartet of aerialists with little experience, but natural talent: the candid Héloïse Volle (already seen in Matriochkas), Yowa-Angélys Tshikaya (Bistronomia), Shirel Nataf (as fierce as in Ma Frère) and Mona Bérard (Les Bracelets rouge).

By Bérangère McNeese. With Héloïse Volle, Shirel Natataf, Mona Bérard… Duration: 1h36. Released March 25, 2026