Discoveries from France World Cinema

Charlie, a 17-year-old girl tortured by doubt, is thrilled when she becomes friends with Sarah, but when Sarah tires of Charlie and looks for a new friend, their relationship takes an ominous turn.

When French painter Pierre Bonnard met Marthe de Méligny, he didn’t know this self-proclaimed aristocrat would become the cornerstone of his life and work. From this moment, she became more than just a muse for the “painter of happiness”, appearing in more than a third of his work. Together, they reached their artistic fulfillment thanks to a colourful love, different from the standards of their time, nurturing the great mystery around their relationship. Based on a true story.

A sexually repressed school teacher releases her pent up passions in a series of shocking crimes.

Paris, 1884. The lives of three orphaned children wandering the streets dominated by ruthless criminals change tragically when they carry out a daring robbery.

Merette is a pretty child, living within a patrician, strictly Calvinist family in the Switzerland of the 19th century. She is happy, until her mother dies, and Merette blames God, and gives up her religion. Her family turns against her, the villagers reject her, and her priest drives her into isolation.

Antoine is the Head of HR of a big company. Managing people is his thing, so when his overwhelmed wife suddenly decides to go on holiday and leave him with the responsibility of the house and their four kids, he knows it will be a piece of cake for him. But Antoine has drastically underestimated the mess that four mischievous kids can cause...

Valentine marries at the end of the 19th century, and love passes through her family from generation to generation.

An intimate portrait of the Turner Prize-winning artist. As the boundary between reality and performance blurs, the shifting relationship between filmmaker and subject calls into question who is actually making the film.

Freshly divorced, Fanny, a thirty-something from Fécamp, has nothing left of her marriage but a sky-blue sofa, debts she refuses to pay, and an absolute determination never to 'start her life' with a man again. Despite her burning need for freedom, this cleaning lady finds herself stuck back at her parents' house. That is, until the day she crosses paths with Anemone, a professional mermaid passing through the region. She decides to take the plunge and dive into the world of mermaiding.

Florence and Vincent Leroy are a model couple. They have great jobs, a perfect marriage and delightful children. And now they want their divorce to be an equal success. But when they are both simultaneously promoted to their dream jobs, their relationship becomes a nightmare. From that moment on, the gloves are off, the two exes declare war and will do everything in their power to NOT have custody of their children.

After seeing the initial passion and romance fade into a series of routine and boring relationships, Alexandre (Vincent Perez) concludes that romance ends when sex enters into a relationship. Determined to prevent this from happening with his latest love-interest—a sexy young woman named Fanfan (Sophie Marceau)—he decides that platonic love is the solution. Despite the wonderful, romantic, and inventive ways Alexandre finds for them to spend time together, Fanfan is left disappointed by his refusal to make love to her. Their exciting relationship becomes jeopardized by Alexandre's unwillingness to change his new approach to love.

When land surveyor K arrives at a small village that houses a castle, local authorities refuse to allow him to enter. As he tries to convince the officials that they sent for him, they clamp down with increasingly complicated bureaucratic obstacles.

In France, terrorist groups and intelligence agencies battle in a merciless war everyday, in the name of radically opposed ideologies. Yet, terrorist and secret agents lead almost the same lives. Condemned to secrecy, these masters of manipulation follow the same methods. Alex and Al Barad are two of them. The former is the head of the D.G.S.E.'s (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, the French equivalent of the CIA or the MI6) counter-terrorism unit while the latter reigns over a terrorist network, and both fight using the most ruthless of weapons: human beings.

Jean Barreau leads a spiritual commune on the countryside with the promise of a second life. When their doubles arrive at the house, his followers learn that Jean meant this promise quite literally. However, not everybody is as easily swayed by their capricious leader, who eventually starts to question his own beliefs.

Thirty-somethings Michaël, Nabil and Sylvain head to New York to surprise their friend Samia on her birthday, secretly arranged with the help of another friend, Gabrielle. The two women had moved to NYC two years previously to try their luck. Samia shares a fabulous loft with a renowned American actress and works as her assistant. Gabrielle has a more mundane job in a small retirement home. Transposed to New York, the close bonds formed over the years between the five friends from a housing project on the outskirts of Paris take on a different aspect. The laughter and emotion is dictated by the adventures they share during their stay, from the daily lives of the women to the discovery of this cult city.

A trucker, an accountant, a former plumber hospitalised after a suicide attempt... Presided over by the accountant, the three families decide to buy a truck, a trucker's dream. The father, practical joker, and larger-than-life lover, keeps a watchful eye. The children are his accomplices. One is his heroine. His daughter is his other heroine. A puzzle of life's desires in which all veers into the imaginary, into dreams of far-off lands.

Molière, a down-and-out actor-cum-playwright up to his ears in debt. When the wealthy Jourdain offers to cover that debt so that Molière's theatrical talents might help Jourdain win the heart of a certain widowed marquise, hilarity ensues.

In his early days as an actor, Marlon Brando (1924-2004) was a shy young man with theatrical ambitions, like many others; but his charisma and superb acting skills made him truly unique, so that the doors to the starry sky of Hollywood opened for him. However, his peculiar manners, political commitment and complicated love life always overshadowed his artistic success.

Growing up in Tehran, a capital of the 21st century... From 2007 to 2025, within a loving family, eighteen years in the life of three sisters, from their early childhood to their daily lives as young women in search of freedom. Brought up in the traditional way, witnessing the struggles of a youth in perpetual movement, what is their future in today's Iranian society?

In the northern Alps, Anne, Hélène and Suzanne take turns looking after a mountain hut. Through the seasons, hikers come and go. Stories bloom and fade, leaving each of them facing the silence of their chosen solitude and the poetry of nature.

In Paris, Lulu, a passionate policeman, works with the faith of a rookie, despite the sclerotic bureaucracy and the incompetence or negligence of some of his colleagues. In his new position as a narcotics inspector, he tries to keep his sanity as he witnesses the worst of the human condition.

Merab, a devoted dancer, has been training for years with his partner Mary for a spot in the National Georgian Ensemble. The arrival of another male dancer, Irakli, sparks both an intense rivalry and romantic desire that may cause Merab to risk his future in dance as well as his relationships.

In eighteenth-century France, a girl is forced against her will to take vows as a nun. Three mothers superior treat her in radically different ways, ranging from maternal concern, to sadistic persecution, to lesbian desire.

Sam, a freelance journalist, decides to investigate the growing phenomenon of disaffected youth joining extremist groups. He infiltrates a group of four young people who have been tasked with the creation of a jihadist cell and whose mission is to destabilise the city centre of Paris.

A glimpse at the life of French singer Serge Gainsbourg, from growing up in 1940s Nazi-occupied Paris through his successful song-writing years in the 1960s to his death in 1991 at the age of 62.

Joseph learns that his son and his companion have just perished in an accident. They were expecting a child via a surrogate mother in Belgium. What will become of their future baby? Is Joseph the legitimate grandfather? Carried by the promise of this birth which will prolong the existence of his son, the sexagenarian goes to meet the young Flemish woman with a fierce and indomitable character.

The circularity of violence seen in a story that circles on itself. In Macedonia, during the war in Bosnia, Christians hunt an ethnic Albanian girl who may have murdered one of their own. A young monk who's taken a vow of silence offers her protection. In London, a photographic editor who's pregnant needs to talk it out with her estranged husband and chooses a toney restaurant.

This is the story of a small Marseilles football club on the verge of extinction that ends up in an amateur tournament organised during the World Cup (inevitably referred to as "La Mondialette"). It's their opportunity to save the club. The team, made up of temperamental hotheads, will have to dodge all kinds of low blows.

Tsar Alexandre II meets a young student, Katia. He understands that he loves her and try to send her away but they end up seeing each other again and becomes his mistress. With the help of Katia, Alexandre prepares a liberal constitution, but these reforms make him hostile to the more privileged subjects without satirising the revolutionaries against the regime.

An 18th century poet travels through time in search of divine wisdom. In a mysterious wasteland, he has a series of enigmatic encounters with symbolic phantoms with whom he muses about the nature of art and his own career. Ultimately, the poet strives to achieve his rebirth as a celestial being.

A student is devastated when he finds that his girlfriend is cheating on him. In order to find out why she did it, he decides to spy on her and her airline pilot lover. Then he sees the pilot with a blonde woman and he begins to follow them…

After leaving the asylum, Vincent van Gogh settles in the home of Doctor Gachet, where he keeps painting amidst the torments of his failing mental health. He begins an affair with his host’s daughter, however, she soon realizes that he doesn’t love her and that his heart beats only for art.

A trio of siblings faces turmoil when their parents reveal they've won the lottery but refuse to share a cent, unraveling buried secrets, unspoken tensions, and deep-seated jealousy that shake the family to its core.

A painter was found burned in her studio twenty years ago. Her story resurfaces when the police begin to investigate two other homicides in Pont-Aven.

An actor is placed in dangerous situations and his fear will be broadcast to the television audience. The audience's emotions will determine whether he is sent into the future or the past.

Because he wanted to protect his little brother, Teddy, a young man without a history, is accused of the murder of his father and sent to a closed educational center, waiting for his trial for parricide. He then plunges into a brutal universe of which he does not know the rules.

A new light on American filmmaker Steven Spielberg, Hollywood’s greatest director, offering a unique perspective on his work and digging into his personal influences.

All girls volley ball team The Falcons end up stranded in the middle of nowhere after their mini-van breaks down. Little do they know they landed in degenerate hunters' territory and the hunt is on. Thus begins a very long night where they must run for their lives and test their team spirit. But the girls are more resourceful than it appears. In the heart of the forest, the tables are about to turn between hunter and hunted...

Set in 1992, a manager Vincent has to run a children's holiday camp for three weeks and to face the unexpected concerning the place, his colleagues, various problems linked to children about the rooms, trips, their belongings...

Benjamin is meant to be a great doctor, he’s certain of it. But his first experience as a junior doctor in the hospital ward where his father works doesn’t turn out the way he hoped it would. Responsibility is overwhelming, his father is all but present, and his co-junior partner, a foreign doctor, is far more experimented than he is. This internship will force Benjamin to confront his limits… and start his way to adulthood.

Following a series of unsolved robberies, the authorities decide to give carte blanche to commander Clara Damico to neutralize a particularly organized gang. Manual Makarov, a well-known figure in organized crime, is currently serving a sentence of twelve years in prison. Commander Damico promises him freedom in exchange for his cooperation. He refuses. There is no other solution, she is obliged to compel him by force.

In a cold French city where suicide is a common urge, there is a colorful shop, managed for many years by the Tuvache family, where it is very easy to obtain the necessary tools to satisfy the sinister desires of so many depressed citizens.

Documentary from French TV channel Canal+ about Marion Cotillard's road to the Oscar for her performance as French singer Édith Piaf in the 2007 film 'La Vie en Rose', also featuring behind-the-scenes footage from the film.

The marriage of the famous writer Alan and his young wife Lola is in a crisis. On a vacation in Haiti Lola wants to decide if their relationship still has a future...

Miss Novak joins the staff of an international boarding school to teach a conscious eating class and forms a strong bond with five students that eventually takes a dangerous turn.

This short film by Jacques Demy was based on his memories of growing up in Nantes, France. While it was initially made for the omnibus film THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS (as the segment on "Lust"), it has also been distributed and exhibited separately.

Five kids wake up in a world where everybody has disappeared.

Maya discovers that her husband – an ex-soldier who is suffering from PTSD - is the prime suspect in a murder investigation. She and her teenage son are forced to go to extremes to keep the family together.

Compulsive spenders Albert and Bruno are in debt up to their necks. While seeking help from community workers to get their lives back on track, they run into a group of young green activists. Lured by the free beer and snacks rather than by the ideals of eco-activists, Albert and Bruno find themselves joining the movement without much conviction.

Between Gennevilliers and New York, Omar and Emmanuel go to great lengths to prove to each other they're no longer in love.

Linda comes to the big city in search of fun and excitement. What she finds is exploitation and abuse at the hands of a succession of sleazy guys. Searching for love, she enters into a lesbian relationship with a beautiful countess, discovers drugs and swingers' parties and starts acting in porno movies. She also begins to write a secret diary...

Stella, a space mechanician, has broken down and ended on a desert planet. While she is in despair, a little girl appears out of nowhere. Following the child into a tunnel, in the depths of the planet, she discovers a big cave full of objects that belonged to her, reminding her the dreams she has left behind.

Violette Toussaint, a cemetery caretaker in a small town in Burgundy, is a unique observer and a compassionate listener. Her peaceful life is filled by conversations with quirky cemetery workers and the many visitors who share their stories of love, loss, and life. However, her routine is disrupted when a local police chief arrives at her door with an unusual request. As they grow closer, Violette comes to understand that the truth behind long-buried mysteries in her past must be uncovered if she wants to take another chance on life and, against all odds, love.

Samuel Pierret is a nurse who saves the wrong guy – a thief whose henchmen take Samuel's pregnant wife hostage to force him to spring their boss from the hospital. A race through the subways and streets of Paris ensues, and the body count rises. Can Samuel evade the cops and the criminal underground and deliver his beloved to safety?

In 1430, Joan of Arc, the prisoner of a powerful lord of the north of France is sold to the English. As a captive awaiting her death, she is approached by different men for whom she is believed to be the embodiment of the infinite.

An accident survivor wakes from a coma and confronts old, uncomfortable memories.

Sadoun is France’s best soccer player whose extra-curriculum pleasures are damaging his play and new contract negotiations. Dispatched by his scheming agent to his home village, he ends up reconciling with his father, relating to his fatherless niece, who dotes on him, and training his local children’s team, whom he takes to championship glory.

Four guys working for a small grocer in trouble, declare war on a new giant neighborhood supermarket by attempting several coups. A film about the big store taking over the business of smaller stores.

Thirtysomething Marco goes through life without a compass. Employed at a Forbach recycling center, he finds comfort in alcohol. And a little with Madeleine, a mature woman with whom he secretly has a relationship. One day, he is drawn by lot to be a juror of Assisi. Incapable of discernment for himself, Marco will have to decide the life of a young arsonist accused of manslaughter.