Girl Model | Argot Pictures

Screenings
Synopsis
Trailer
Reviews
Stills
Press Kit (PDF)

RECENT SCREENINGS
Tallin | Estonia
November 16-30, 2011
Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival
Amsterdam | Netherlands
November 16-26, 2011
IDFA
Copenhagen | Denmark
November 3-13, 2011
CPH: Dox
Rome | Italy
October 27-November 4, 2011
Rome International Film Festival
Rio de Janeiro | Brazil
October 6-18, 2011
Festival do Rio
Abu Dhabi | UAE
October 13-22, 2011
Abu Dhabi Film Festival
Toronto | Canada
September 8-18, 2011
Toronto International Film Festival

SHORT SYNOPSIS

Told through the eyes of a 13-year-old Siberian girl and the American scout who discovered her, Girl Model follows a complex global supply chain of young girls sent abroad to seek their fortunes in the unregulated and often murky world of the modeling industry.

LONG SYNOPSIS
Despite a lack of obvious similarities between Siberia and Tokyo, a thriving model industry connects these distant regions. Girl Model follows two protagonists involved in this industry: Ashley, a deeply ambivalent model scout who scours the Siberian countryside looking for fresh faces to send to the Japanese market, and one of her discoveries, Nadya, a 13-year-old plucked from her rustic home in Russia and dropped into the center of bustling Tokyo with promises of a profitable career. After Ashley’s initial discovery of Nadya, they rarely meet again, but their stories are inextricably bound. As Nadya’s optimism about rescuing her family from financial hardship grows, her dreams contrast against Ashley’s more jaded outlook about the industry’s corrosive influence.

Girl Model is a lyrical exploration of a world defined by glass surfaces and camera lenses, reflecting back differing versions of reality to the young women caught in their scope. As we enter further into this world, it more and more resembles a hall of mirrors, where appearances can’t be trusted, perception become distorted and there is no clear way out. Will Nadya, and the other girls like her, be able to find anyone to help them navigate this maze, or will they follow a path like Ashley’s, having learned the tricks of the labyrinth but unable to escape its lure? Indeed, it’s difficult to know who these young girls can trust and where the industry will take them.