The Plot: Teenage sisters September (Pascale Kahn) and July (Mia Tharia) were, as their names suggest, born ten months apart. That makes them closer in spirit as well as age and outlook. After a violent incident at school, September gets suspended. Their mother Sheela (Rakhee Thakrar) decides that they need some time away from home to reflect and decide a way forward. The change of environment to the Irish coastline might be what the sisters need to cool down. However, the relationship between them is only getting more focused as July exerts her own independence…
The Verdict: Having worked both for and with her husband Yorgos Lanthimos, Greek-born French actress Ariane Labed is striking out on her own as a director. Perhaps inspired by Lanthimos’ own blend of strong character pieces with dashes of surrealism, September Says is cut from a similar cloth but dresses itself up as very much Labed’s own animal and plays into the feminine instincts that came with them. At its core it’s about the close, at-times unhealthy, relationship between two sisters as they find their own identity as young adults. There may be even a touch of the sinister at play – the opening sequence is eerily close to depicting the spooky Grady Twins from The Shining. Not to mention a depiction of teenage sisterhood that recalls the sibling intensity of Ginger Snaps. The only transformations here though are of the character kind.
Labed’s script is adapted from the novel Sisters by Daisy Johnson. September is a rebel at heart, lashing out at like a wild animal at the jungle of school. July looks up to her – even calling her the person that she always wanted to be. Not that she needs to imitate September or do everything she says (hence the title). July’s emergence from the shadow of her sister is the main focus here. The script is pared back on dialogue between the two, which works both for and against the film. At times, the story needs the sisters to communicate more with each other to understand their dynamic and dependence on each other. This is particularly relevant later on as some potentially risky behaviour comes into the play. It also has the more positive effect of reinforcing the already fine performances by Pascale Kahn and Mia Tharia, to the point where they essentially carry the whole film as a shared actorly experience.
Labed is known as being a physical actress and she appears to have channelled that into the direction of her young cast. When dialogue is sparse, screen presence can fill in those gaps sufficiently and smooth out the narrative arc. Thankfully, that is the case here as Labed translates that sibling intensity into relatable performances that hold the screen. Less well defined is the role of the mother, Sheela. She comes across as somewhat aimless and shows less careful judgment than her daughters, observing them but not really seeing through them and understanding them. It’s an interesting perspective to take on parent-child relationships, where the mother is receding in dependency as the sisters approach impending adulthood. It works though due to the way that Labed frames these characters through the prism of wordly discovery, with quirky, relevant flashes of surrealism that are more grounded than one might think. September Says is an impressive debut from Labed that is distinctive enough to linger in the memory for a while afterwards.
Rating: 3 / 5
Review by Gareth O’Connor
In short: Distinctive debut
Directed by Ariane Labed.
Starring Pascale Kahn, Mia Tharia, Rakhee Thakrar.