Back in 2000, a French film was vilified for its tale of two women embarking on a drug-fuelled killing spree. But 25 years on, it's considered revolutionary by some.

When a certain French thriller first arrived in May 2000, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, it generated a maelstrom of controversy. The film had already been threatened with censorship in France, and some audience members at Cannes reportedly donned T-shirts in solidarity with its writer and co-director Virginie Despentes. Others walked out in disgust. And that was just the beginning of the storm.

Warning: This article contains descriptions of violence and language and content that some may find offensive

Released in French cinemas 25 years ago this month, Baise-moi is a pulpy, ultra-violent odyssey of two women disillusioned with a patriarchal society that is now remembered as one of cinema's biggest cause célèbres. It was created by writer and film-maker Virginie Despentes as a rough-hewn, tongue-in-cheek adaptation of her 1993 debut novel of the same name, and co-directed by adult film actor Coralie Trinh Thi. Partly triggered by a savage act of male violence, during which one of the two lead characters, along with another female friend, is raped, it sees its heroines decide to unleash their anger in revenge, killing off more than a few sexual predators during a drug-fuelled and doomed road trip. In the wake of #MeToo and a new wave of female film-making weaponising "female rage", the film has undergone a reassessment among critics.

Where other road movies, such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967) or Thelma & Louise (1991), had also crossed violent terrain and been critically lauded, Baise-moi was vilified from all sides of the political spectrum. The film combines a premise that feels familiar – two outlaws on the run from the authorities – with graphic depictions of sex and murder. It was shot on a shoestring budget – tracking the misdemeanours of its gun-toting heroines through handheld camera footage – and upon its general release in France in June 2000, critics were baffled by its provocatively trashy packaging. "The cinephile press in France tends to be much more interested in aesthetics, in film form, than content and context," Ginette Vincendeau, professor of film studies at King's College, London and critic, tells the BBC. "It was considered ugly." She was one of a handful to review Baise-moi positively when it was released in the UK.

In France, Baise-moi (the title translating literally as "fuck me") was initially released on 64 screens, but after riling right-wing groups in France, such as conversative values organisation Promouvoir, it was given an X rating by the French high court, effectively making it the first film banned in the country for 28 years, as only a clutch of specialist cinemas could show a film with such a prohibitive rating. When it was then released on dvd, it could only be purchased in sex shops. Meanwhile, the left-wing press objected to it for different reasons, being unconvinced at how effectively it conveyed its message, and accusing it of hypocrisy. As The Guardian's critic Peter Bradshaw put it: "Baise-Moi is an understandable counterblast to fatuous middlebrow dramas [...] But the intellectual penetration of this sour, lifeless movie is pretty shallow."

Its pariah status in France came despite a chorus of support from fellow film-makers such as Catherine Breillat, who spearheaded a petition for Baise-moi's re-release, with signatures from other luminaries like Jean Luc-Godard and Claire Denis, which suggested it had fallen victim to "a revival of post-war censorship". Under a new 18 certificate, the film........

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