Fatima, 17, the youngest of three daughters, treads carefully as she searches for her own path, grappling with emerging desires, her attraction to women, and her loyalty to her caring French-Algerian family.

It is springtime, and Fatima (played by non-professional newcomer Nadia Melliti) is in her final year of secondary school. She has a warm relationship with her parents and her two sisters. At school, she has a close group of friends – mostly boys, as she feels comfortable with them. Fatima is smart, likes books, football, freestyling, and running. And she likes girls, but she’s keeping that a secret.

When Fatima downloads a dating app on her phone, she starts covertly experimenting with gay hookups. As she begins university in Paris and explores a whole new world, she has to confront a timeless and heartrending dilemma: how can you stay true to yourself when it feels impossible to reconcile different parts of your identity? Actor turned director Hafsia Herzi adapted her first feature film from the novel La Petite Derniere, by Franco-Algerian author Fatima Daas.