French Animation. Selection by Nika Neputina
NOIR-SOLEIL | Marie Larrivé, 2021
After an earthquake in the Bay of Naples, a man’s body is discovered. Italian police assume he took his own life forty years ago. For DNA testing they contact Dino and his daughter Victoria. During this unexpected shared trip, the young woman digs into her father’s mysterious past, while Dino is involuntarily returned to the scenery of his childhood.
FURRIE | Lucie Grannec, 2022
“We are people playing pretend, that’s all it is in the end”
A surprisingly delicate and beautiful film for this topic. The furry community is heavily stigmatized and often associated with strange and sexually deviant practices, although in fact far from all furries are involved in that: some people simply enjoy role-playing animals, others draw or sew costumes to order. There are even far-right furries and fox republicans, so this subculture is truly multifaceted.
SOLEIL GRIS | Camille Monnier, 2024
Under the blazing sun, Charlie is terribly bored and dreams of going to the sea. But she is forced to spend time in a rundown motel with her cousin Jess. The girls do not get along and quarrel over every little thing. On the radio, a monotonous voice predicts the imminent end of the world. The pool is empty, the sun burns bright, tension rises: the ecological apocalypse announced on air suddenly bursts into reality.
L’HEURE DE L’OURS | Agnès Patron, 2019
“That same night, houses will burn. Men and women will tremble. Crowds of children will gather and howl, dancing alone in the ashes like wild bears. A single scream is enough to wake them from sleep!”
A coming-of-age story about a boy trying to come to terms with a new man in his mother’s life and with painful family changes. The film is entirely immersed in his inner world—jealousy, confusion, and fierce, boiling rage.
FILLES BLEUES, PEUR BLANCHE | Marie Jacotey & Lola Halifa-Legrand, 2020
During a road trip, Nils tells his girlfriend Flora about a tribe of women who ate one another and about his first love, whom he kissed in a grove. These stories unsettle Flora and trigger a chain of mysterious events: suddenly she is kidnapped by Nils’s feral ex-lovers who want to perform a certain mysterious ritual.