 - Photo Uni France.jpg)
Showcasing a diversity of French-language cinema, there's something for everyone, from comedies and thrillers to romcoms, documentaries, animated films, and historical dramas. This year, all the films have been packaged into eight themes: Families in Motion, Tales of the Night, Mad World, All Eyes on Docs, Smells Like Teen Spirit, Enjoy the Silence, Women Supporting Women, and Heartbeats.
To help you decide which of the 26 films to watch first, we've chosen some highlights from each category.
ALL EYES ON DOCS
La lutte est une fin/The Fight is the End is a documentary about a working-class boxing club in Marseille, France, that’s open to anyone who wants to join. Here, director Arthur Thomas-Pavlowsky tells the story of how boxing collective Boxe Massilia uses the sport to fight against stereotypes and discrimination. This film is about hope and emancipation, in a world that men typically rule.
ENJOY THE SILENCE
For a bit of light-hearted fun, there’s Dans la danse/In the Dance by Ekaterina Mikheeva. It’s a short film (just under five minutes) about four friends who get together for a freestyle dance session. The ‘silence’ draws from the fact that none of the characters speak, but expect a sweet and short beatboxing soundtrack to accompany the punchy animation.
FAMILIES IN MOTION
La vie au Canada/Life in Canada is a short (under 30 minutes) comedy-drama by Frédéric Rosset that delves into the theme of familial love in its exploration of non-blood relations and family dysfunction. Sarah decides to attend a family gathering and takes with her 10-year-old Hermoine, her partner’s daughter. The result is a heart-warming comedy about gender norms and navigating family.
HEARTBEATS
Belgian film director and screenwriter Zeno Graton delivers a tender portrayal of young love in a juvenile detention centre with Le paradis/The Lost Boys under the Heartbeats theme. Just as 17-year-old Joe is about to be released from the detention centre, William, a new detainee, arrives and turns Joe’s world upside down in the most beautiful way, leading him to question his desire to be free...
MAD WORLD
A short comedy that draws from the many failures of its heroine, Les grandes vacances/The Summer Holidays by Valentine Cadic is a story that follows Blandine, a woman who finds herself overwhelmed by the crowds, the noise, and the rain during a summer holiday at a mountain-side campsite. Yet, while trying to escape her holiday from hell, she meets a young journalist named Helio.
SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT
In this short film, Pauline Ouvrard merges a teenage girl’s coming-of-age story with a disturbing tale of her only friend, a turkey that lives in her garden and speaks only to her. Jeanne dinde/Turkey Jeanne's protagonist faces an existential crisis when she meets Laurène, a friend from school, and finds herself ready to leave her childish ways behind.
TALES OF THE NIGHT
In this adaptation of the 1903 novella by Henry James, Patric Chiha’s La bête dans la Jungle/The Beast in the Jungle pays homage to clubbing culture as it tells the story of a man and a woman’s search for a mysterious event that drives them to frequent a nightclub for 25 years. From disco to techno, it’s a love story, a story of obsession, and a story that ends more tragically than expected.
WOMEN SUPPORTING WOMEN
One of the longer-running films in this year’s selection, Lucie Borleteau’s À mon seul désir/My Sole Desire follows a young woman's physical and emotional awakening that ensues when she accepts a job at a strip club. Sexy and evocative, it offers a feminine look at the world of sex work and the complications that arise as relationships are formed on the job.
Comments