Popular Culture Review 32.1
that we understand a later conversation where Djibril warns Marieme away from Ismaël under the guise of maintaining her reputation ( and his own ). While Ismaël himself is often figured in the center of the image , his sexual desire for Marieme is also depicted by his hand emerging from the top of the frame to caress and undress her . The parallel with Djibril is unsettling , a comparison that continues with Ismaël ’ s weak offer to marry , or at least run away with , Marieme in some misguided attempt to save her from Abou and a dissolute life . The association of drug-dealer Abou with horschamps reverses the procedure of intrusion and then control but may be all the more powerful for it . Abou spends not a little time appearing to help Marieme , providing employment and housing , methods of escape from Djibril ’ s and Ismaël ’ s domination . So , when Marieme is dancing at a party with one of her co-workers ( a woman Abou pimps out ), it is truly unsettling for him to slip into frame from behind , pinning her between his body and the other woman and demanding sexual favors . Once again , Marieme ’ s quest for freedom and self-identity stumbles , and she flees — this time , back to her housing complex , but not back home .
Hors-champs can have many connotations , but in the aesthetic unity it gives these scenes Sciamma demonstrates that misogyny doesn ’ t just lurk in the shadows of Bande de filles ’ visual universe , but rather it is omnipresent , a pattern of behavior that literally shapes Marieme ’ s path .
ANY-SPACES-WHATEVER
If non-places in Bande de filles are largely a matter of what
is placed before the camera , its any-spaces-whatever are an effect that arises from the way in which the camera frames , focuses , and associates what is seen . Gilles Deleuze ’ s two
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