Lila Says

Lila Says (Lila dit ça, 2005) is Ziad Doueiri's French drama you can watch online on iFILM. In a poor Arab neighborhood of Marseille, shy teenager Chimo falls hard for Lila, a blond newcomer who has just moved in with her aunt.

Lila talks the way nobody around her dares to — about desire, about her body, about everything left unspoken on these streets. For Chimo, who writes in secret and dreams of escaping the projects, her words become equal parts obsession and dare. Then the leader of a rival gang sets his sights on her too, and the triangle curdles into something far darker. Vahina Giocante plays Lila opposite Mohammed Khouas as Chimo.

Doueiri shoots where tenderness meets street cruelty, building a coming-of-age story where first longing can't be pried loose from the violence around it. One for viewers who like raw European films about youth with no varnish. Stream Lila Says (2005) online on iFILM.