Based on an autobiographical short story by novelist Rose Tremain, Extra Geography is a sharply funny and complex coming-of-age adventure set in the emotional hothouse of an all-girls school in Yorkshire.

Galaxie Clear and Marnie Duggan in Extra Geography.

Its focus is the tight friendship between competitively studious Year 10 besties Flic and Minna, both of whom are determined to get a prized offer from an Oxbridge college, which they will attend together, naturally.

What happens if they don’t get in? “Maybe we’ll just die,” says Flic, with complete sincerity.

A-grades and hardcore lacrosse skills are one thing, however; they also need the requisite ‘life experience’ to ace an interview. So both reluctantly audition for a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream – which includes boys from a nearby single-sex school (a compromise they’ll just have to live with, given that boys are stupid and yuck).

Inspired by Shakespeare’s plot, Flic (Marni Duggan) and Minna (Galaxie Clear) decide to act out the spell Oberon places on Titania. Closing their eyes in the school dining room, they make a pact: to fall in love with the first person they see when they open them.

The first person they set eyes on is Miss Delavigne (Australian actor Alice Englert), the school’s geography teacher, a young, somewhat awkward New Zealander. Feigning a fascination with all things geographic, Flic and Minna embark on a campaign to win her heart – a mission as unwise as it is cruel. Competitive feelings are aroused, and before long, these BFFs find themselves pulling in different directions.

Director Molly Manners, making her feature debut, captures adolescent feeling beautifully in a film that casts a deadpan yet tender eye over the girls’ transition into young adulthood. Duggan and Clear – both in their first big-screen roles – are terrific, and their world is cleverly captured (by Aussie DOP Andy Commis) in a stylish mix of locked-camera two-shots (amplifying Flic and Minna’s bond) and flowing Steadicam trips through school corridors. The time period is deliberately hazy. Are we in the present or the pre-internet 1980s? It’s hard to tell.

Extra Geography isn’t breaking any new ground (tonally, it shares some vibes with Terry Zwigoff’s 2001 film Ghost World), but Manners’ direction and Miriam Battye’s wise and briskly funny screenplay feel fresh. Yes, Flic and Minna’s posturing is absurd and immature, but the film never stoops to ridicule, nor does it sensationalise matters (or cast a moral judgment) when their feelings get out of hand.

Extra Geography screens in the 2026 Russell Hobbs British Film Festival, 28 October-6 December.