Emphatically imagined from a female perspective, WATER LILIES delves into the mysterious world of teenage girls. Marie (Pauline Acquart) is a lanky teenager content to hang out with Anne (Louise Blanchere), an awkward chubbette and her devoted slave, until blonde dazzler Floriane (Adele Haenel) captures Marie’s interest and lures her into a murkier pool of desire and disenchantment. Céline Sciamma’s precisely rendered first feature is devoid of adults and by design, boys appear only in relation to the female trio and the backdrop of synchronized swimming that is their daily summer activity. Water Lilies captures the dynamics of the girls’ shifting relationships and brilliantly navigates a psychological terrain rarely if ever captured on film with this degree of honesty. While most cinematic examinations of teenage life are full of aimless conversation, this one plays like a thinking person’s action film.