Pauline Étienne

Merci pour le souvenir

In her thirties, Jeanne loses her father in an accident. A few years later, her mother becomes involved with a man who bears an uncanny resemblance to the deceased. He's not a ghost, just a bad look-alike, and Jeanne's mother has decided to have him re-enact their story, according to her own rules. But even if it means bringing back the dead, Jeanne feels she has something to say, especially what she couldn't say when her father was alive.

The Divine Sarah Bernhardt

1915, Sarah Bernhardt is the world's first star. Free. Modern. Divine. Eccentric. Visionary... Between legend and fantasy, Sarah Bernhardt tells us the love story that marked her life.

Retrotherapy

Yvonne loses her mind and confuses her teenage granddaughter, Manon, with her deceased daughter. Manon plays the role of the mother she never knew, reviving her grandmother's years of feminist activism. In this troubled game, Manon will learn to become a woman.

Zaï Zaï Zaï Zaï

Imagine a world where the worst behaviour you could ever have is to forget your store's loyalty card in your other trousers...that's what happens to Adrien. This serious misconduct forces him to go into hiding, as both police and media hunt him down.

French Touch: Girls of Summer

Feeling smothered by both stifling heat and their parents, these young women long for a dip in the enticing pool of adulthood. An anthology of award-winning French Shorts.

Ainsi va la vie

A portrait of three women striving to forge their own rosy paths.

Dad Friend

Stéphane defers his frustration at not having had a son on his sons-in-law. So when her younger daughter decides to leave a rugby player than the idolatrous father for a doctor he can not stand, he will do everything to get his son-in-law back. His daughter will not let it go.

The Collection

Paris, 1942. In the middle of the Occupation, Victor Gence, an unscrupulous merchant, buys, at vastly low prices, artworks belonging to Jewish collectors. Informed by a concierge, he manages to enter the apartment of Mr. Klein who apparently has a fabulous collection.

Old Boys

In the school-set re-working of Cyrano, an awkward but imaginative pupil helps the handsome but spectacularly dim school-hero pursue the fiery daughter of a visiting French teacher.

Le retrait des troupes

Anna’s life is well settled. She and her boyfriend Paul, a young soldier, diligently prepare for the arrival of their first child as the future father is set to leave on a mission abroad. But a few days before the departure, the French state decides to withdraw all troops, and Paul tells Anna that he will be able to stay with her the coming months. The unexpected news cause a big dilemma for her.

Tokyo Fiancée

A Japanophile young Belgian woman in Tokyo falls into a whirlwind romance with a Francophile Japanese student, in this charming and tender tale of young love and cultural discovery.

La France qui se lève tôt

Souleymane has been living and working in France for years, with no residence permit. One day, his boss reports him. A musical about illegal immigrants.

Discordia

A middle-aged hermit lives in a cursed forest. Fifteen years ago, a mysterious tribe kidnapped his daughter. For years, he traveled the world to find and rescue her, in vain. Years later, she is the one who finds him. But she was followed...

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

An aging movie actor who is preparing to shoot a death scene finds himself visited by the spirit of a dead, long-ago lover.

The Midwife

Claire is a midwife and has devoted her life to others. At a moment when she is preoccupied by the imminent closure of the maternity clinic where she works, her life is further turned upside down when Béatrice, her father's former mistress, turns up on the scene. Béatrice is a capricious and selfish woman, Claire's exact opposite.

Footnotes

When Julie finally lands a job at a luxury shoemaker, her dreams of stability collapse as the owner threatens to close the factory. Together with an intrepid group of women, they decide to resist, bringing back to life a bold and elegant shoe model to save the renowned brand. But when Samy, a young truck driver as wily as charming, jumps in the middle of the fight, this is no longer the same song.

Family Ball

Today, Julie is strong, She is independent. She can go back home. Her family is waiting for her, they love her : her mother, her brother, her sister... and her father.

Eden

Paul, a teenager in the underground scene of early-nineties Paris, forms a DJ collective with his friends and together they plunge into the nightlife of sex, drugs, and endless music.

2 Autumns 3 Winters

At 33, Arman has decided to change his life. He starts by running. It’s a good start. Amélie carries on with her life. She runs, as well. The first encounter is a shock. The second is a stab in the heart.

The Nun

Suzanne Simonin describes her life of suffering in letters. As a young woman she is sent to a convent against her will. Since her parents cannot afford the dowry required for a marriage befitting her rank they decide she must instead become a nun. Although a kind and understanding Mother Superior helps her to learn the convent’s daily routine, Suzanne’s desire for freedom remains unabated. When the Mother Superior dies, Suzanne finds herself faced with reprisals, humiliation and harassment at the hands of the new Abbess and the other Sisters. For many years, Suzanne is subjected to bigotry and religious fanaticism. (Berlinale.de)

Une place

Alice is a young street girl, she is looking for a place where she can stay...

Lost Paradise

Lucie and her father Hugo have grown closer since Lucie's mother left unexpectedly a year prior. When her mother returns, Hugo becomes jealous and angry.

Une vie française

When Paul Blick, 54, a renowned photographer, returns from a long trip abroad, he learns that his daughter Marie had been interned in a psychiatric hospital for schizophrenia.

Black Heaven

An innocent young man becomes enamored with a mysterious girl. He is lured into "Black Hole" - a dark, obscure video game world of avatars with deadly serious intentions in the real world.

That Sunday

Two girls, Gabrielle and Jeanne, freshly out of adolescence, escape by car on a Sunday afternoon without telling their parents.

Les Gendarmes et les voleurs

In a small village, where no offence has been recorded for a long time, four policemen lead a peaceful existence. But one day they receive a terrible announcement: because of the absence of crime, the police station will close. They then have an idea to keep their job.

Driving Lesson

A 17-year-old girl who has just discovered that she is pregnant is obliged to take her outspoken grandmother along on a driving lesson.

Bowing Out

Simon, a depressed hitman, tries to hang himself in a forest. Bernard, a young man with no history who passes by by chance, saves him. The old man, sick, cannot drive without risking an accident. Claiming to be a rodent controler, he hires Bernard to take him to Cap d'Agde. Simon, lonely and cynical, is forced to travel in the company of this talkative and confusingly optimistic driver.

Le Bel Âge

At 18, Claire is torn between swim practice and the pangs of first love. The elderly and eccentric Maurice Reverdy takes her in in his big house, but the girl carefully avoids this faraway figure, who is none other than her grandfather. Proud, rebellious, solitary, they represent two generations that are simultaneously attracted to and repelled by one another. Their lives will intertwine, as one seeks out her future and the other is tormented by his past.

Silent Voice

An elderly woman wants to meet her son’s murderer. A sixteen-year-old girl who has crossed paths with a young hoodlum needs an adult to accompany her to the prison visiting room. A young medical supplies delivery man is offered a deal to take the place of a gangster inmate so that the latter may escape. Two women, one man, three destinies that come together in the visiting room of a prison…

Where the Boys Are

A few girls in an apartment. Across the street men are building a mosque.

Private Lessons

An aspiring tennis player is taken under the wing of an established player as his family life falls apart.