Fatima (Nadia Melliti) is an Algerian teen living in France. She loves football, hangs out with her bros at school, and spars with her older sisters as they tease her for not knowing how to cook or dress in a way that men like.

Fatima is pretty terse, buttoned up and prickly. It takes awhile before we realise why. She is from a Muslim family and she watches from the sidelines as queer classmates are bullied and her religion says that homosexuality is a sin. She likes women, even though she has a boyfriend. He can’t understand why she has no time for him and is not swept off her feet by his plans for them to marry.

She finds women through dating apps and tentatively has hook ups and connections where for the first time we see her smile. It feels like she is looking for love, and when she finds nurse Ji-Na (Park Ji-min), it feels like this might be something more. Ji-Na has her own demons though and it’s often an excruciating watching the tragedy of someone experiencing the joys and heartache of love without being able to tell anyone about it.

I loved about this was director Hafsia Herzi’s intensity of observation of Fatima. She is often in the centre of every scene and Melliti personifies her in a way that is fascinating and believable. She’s not an easy person to get close to but we see the cracks in the armour.

At the start I was worried that this might be another film about the tragedy of being gay but happily there are many scenes of queer joy and moments where Fatima smiles and everything is good with her world. Yes it is a story that has been told before but I think there is space for many more stories of the experience of LGBTQIA+ people across the world. Finding out during the end credits that it is based on the autobiography of Fatima Daas, I did feel there were some moments that shows a lack of objectivity and a tendency to rationalise her behaviour – I think we are always supposed to feel sympathy for her, even when she is complicit in her unhappiness.

There is a final scene where she talks with her mother and it is Intensely captivating. It felt like my heart was in my mouth as we want her to be able to talk about who she is but know why it is so difficult.