Firmly on the Ground

Adventure, rebellion, and emotions are all of the agenda for the 2025 feature-film selection. The 11 films (seven first and four second films) share the same magical power: raise you out of your seat by the sheer power of cinema they unleash, while encouraging you to keep your feet firmly on the ground. The ride begins with Adam’s sake, the opening film of the 64th Semaine de la Critique. After exploring schools and playgrounds (Playground), Belgian director Laura Wandel sets the plot of her second feature within the walls of a hospital - an echo chamber for various social issues. Sequence shots and close-ups shape this contemporary drama, starring the radiating Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei, playing, respectively, a vigilant nurse and a struggling single mother. 

Tapping into formidable creativity to transpose the reality in which their stories unfold, the competing filmmakers make bold artistic and narrative choices to vigourously rip into tired tropes. To each their own style. Dutch director Sven Bresser chooses the terse form of crime film to question toxic masculinity and the systemic nature of violence in Reedland; Cañada Real, Europe’s largest shantytown, becomes the surreal stage of major disruptions for two playful teenagers in Sleepless City by Spanish filmmaker Guillermo Galoe; in Thailand, spirits are reincarnated in vacuum cleaners and air conditionners to protest against oblivion thanks to Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s witty and fantastical reinterpretation of ghost stories’ conventions in A Useful Ghost; Belgian director Alexe Poukine gives naturalistic social drama a new boost with Kika, the portrait of a social worker expecting a child she cannot afford to want; the blueprints of a small futuristic house spark dizzying existential debates about family and history in Imago, an autobiographical documentary by Chechen director Déni Oumar Pitsaev; French director Pauline Loquès accurately captures three decisive days in the life of a young man who no longer knows which way to turn in Nino, a real-time chronicle that hits home; and finally, we tie on our sneakers with Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou to keep up with a mother and her two daughters as they race through hardship in Taipei in Left-Handed Girl, a melodrama full of unexpected twists. Despite the gravity of the topics they address, these films - fiction and documentary alike - fight off pessimism and fatalism, seeking sunlight even in the dead of night. 

For the special screenings, two French dramedies with different themes and rhythms will delight us. First, life in the outskirts, with Baise-en-ville, directed by and starring Martin Jauvat, an endearing walking road-movie fueled by situational comedy and slapstick. Then, Paris by bike, with Ella Rumpf and Mona Chokri, the heroines of Love Letters by Alice Douard, a beautiful film about motherhood and adoption set in 2014, a year after the same-sex marriage act was passed.  

As well as revealing the phenomenal talent of filmmakers and sharing powerful stories, this edition pays tribute, once again, to the actors and actresses who are just beginning to step into the spotlight. New faces onto whom both the present and the future are projected - like Manon Clavel, discovered in The Truth by Hirokazu Kore-eda taking on her first major role in Kika; Quebecois actor Théodore Pellerin, already recognised on TV and film, incandescent in Nino; and Davika Hoorne, the rising star of Thai cinema, extraordinary in A Useful Ghost. 

To close this 64th edition of La Semaine de la Critique, we present a first animated feature with psychedelic colours, the aptly titled Planets, by Japanese director Momoko Seto - an ecological fable in which heroes are… dandelion achenes that have survived a nuclear explosion. A mind-boggling journey from the cosmic to the microscopic, that leaves a lasting mark on our conscience and reminds us of the importance of the ties that bind us.

Ava Cahen
Artistic director of La Semaine de la Critique