Cécile Tollu-Polonowski

Paternal Leave

Alone and angry, a teenager travels to the coast of northern Italy to meet her biological father. On the beaches of Emilia-Romagna’s Riviera, deserted in winter, the girl meets him for the first time. Their encounter is fraught with questions, longing and conflict, as they struggle for acceptance, love, and honesty. It’s a difficult and complicated reckoning between the choices of the past and its repercussions on the present.

September Says

When September is suspended from school, her sister July begins to assert her own independence. Tension in the family builds on holiday Ireland as a series of surreal encounters test the them all to their limit.

Motel Destino

Dayana lives an abusive marriage with former police officer Elias, owner of Motel Destino. When 21-year-old Heraldo finds himself at the motel after messing up a hit and going on the run, Dayana finds herself intrigued and lets him stay. As the two navigate a dance of power and desire, a dangerous plan for freedom emerges.

Invisible Life

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1950. In the conservative home of the Gusmão family, Eurídice and Guida are two inseparable sisters who support each other. While Guida can share with her younger sister the details of her romantic adventures, Eurídice finds in her older sister the encouragement she needs to pursue her dream of becoming a professional pianist.

The Operative

A young Western woman is recruited by the Mossad to go undercover in Tehran where she becomes entangled in a complex triangle with her handler and her subject.

Happy as Lazzaro

Purehearted teen Lazzaro is content living as a sharecropper in rural Italy, but an unlikely friendship with the marquise’s son will change his world.

Umbilical Cord

Todor is in his early thirties and lives with his mother, reliant on her cooking, ironing, washing, and company. The comfort of this co-dependent lifestyle is suddenly altered one night when Todor arrives home late after an office party.

This Summer Feeling

In high summer, Sasha suddenly dies. Her death brings two virtual strangers, her boyfriend Lawrence and sister Zoé, closer together, sharing their grief and the burden of their loss in Berlin, Paris and New York.