Raw follows Justine, a strict vegetarian who starts her first week at a French veterinary college. Her older sister Alexia studies there, but the school’s harsh hazing quickly pulls Justine away from her family’s rules. After she is forced to eat raw animal flesh, she develops a growing hunger for meat and then for human flesh. The story mixes school drama, dark humor, sex, family secrets, and graphic body horror as Justine tries to control what she is becoming.
The film puts female desire, changing bodies, and the pressure to fit in at the center of Justine’s growth. Justine is not shown as a helpless victim, and the story treats her hunger as part of her struggle to learn what she wants and what she can control. Alexia is both her harsh teacher and her closest rival, so the sisters shape the main conflict and the final choice. The film also includes Adrien, Justine’s openly gay roommate, but his identity supports the friendship and sexual confusion around the story rather than becoming a separate political lesson. Its woke material is clear in its feminist view of female desire and its challenge to shame around women’s bodies, while the plot remains mainly a disturbing family and survival story.
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Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Raw.
Woke representation / casting
The movie centers two sisters and gives Justine an openly gay roommate, Adrien, as a major friend. The student group is not presented as a diversity showcase, and the setting is a modern French college. Nothing in the story or marketing says the casting is a representation campaign. The score reflects the visible gay supporting role, while the female lead and sister are not treated as a mismatch.
18%
Woke political dialogue
Not present. The students talk about hazing, sex, food, family, and fear. The film does not use modern activist slogans or political speeches.
0%
Identity-driven story themes
Female desire and changing bodies drive Justine’s entire arc. The film presents her sexual awakening as active and not shameful, and it links that change to her hunger. The two sisters control the main action, while male students mainly enforce the school culture or become victims. The story treats breaking old rules and refusing a fixed idea of womanhood as a kind of freedom, although it shows a cost in violence and responsibility.
64%
Western institutional / cultural critique
The college hazing system forces new students to obey cruel rules and treats the abuse as tradition. The teachers and adults offer little help, so the school looks careless and hostile. The film also pushes back against the idea that women should be clean, pretty, quiet, or ashamed of desire. It does not build a wider attack on Christianity, capitalism, conservatives, or Western society.
38%
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. Raw is an original story and does not change a known character, canon, or historical figure.
0%
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Not present. No sustained anti-woke complaint was found. X research found no anti-woke complaints, and wider coverage focused on gore, fainting, and feminist readings rather than a boycott or backlash. Some online viewers debated whether the film was feminist, but the material found no organized anti-woke campaign.
0%
Creator track record context
Julia Ducournau has a supplied cached score of 67/100 and a clear record of feminist and queer-framed work. In Raw interviews, she calls the movie feminist and says she wanted female sexuality to be active instead of written as a victim story. The supplied context also gives Julie Gayet 58/100 and Nadia Turincev 52/100, while other listed crew have lower or mixed scores. This creates strong supporting context, but the movie’s own themes carry the main weight.
65%
Production
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