When it’s Wednesday, it’s movie time. Today we offer you our selection of films for the week, to best guide you in the dark theaters.
1. La Petite by Guillaume Nicloux
Joseph, played on screen by Fabrice Luchini, learns that his son and his son’s partner have just lost their lives in an accident. Before the tragedy, the couple was about to become parents. They had indeed hired a surrogate mother in Belgium. What will be the fate of the child about to be born? Can Joseph be the legitimate grandfather? This reality would comfort him, as within this woman’s womb, a part of his deceased son grows. So, the sexagenarian decides to find this Flemish woman and fight for his grandchild. This drama is an adaptation of the novel Le Berceau by Fanny Chesnel.
2. L’Arbre aux papillons d’or by Pham Thiên Ân
His sister-in-law has just died in a motorcycle accident in Saigon. She leaves behind her son, miraculously safe and sound. Thien takes on the mission of bringing her remains back to her village, accompanied by Dao, her now orphaned five-year-old nephew. After the funeral, he sets off on his scooter for a journey across the Vietnamese countryside in search of his elder brother, Dao’s father, who left the family home years earlier. A journey that will notably question his faith. This drama is the first film by Pham Thiên Ân, who won the Caméra d’Or at the Directors’ Fortnight at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
3. Déserts by Faouzi Bensaïdi
Mehdi and Hamid work for a debt collection agency in Casablanca. The two suit-and-tie colleagues travel across the Moroccan desert and its remote villages looking for over-indebted families they have to compel to pay their debts to meet their targets.
4. Acide by Just Philippot
Guillaume Canet and Lætitia Dosch play Michal and Élise, the separated parents of Selma, a 15-year-old teenager. As France faces a devastating natural disaster, the family will have to try to unite to survive together in this apocalyptic situation. Clouds of acid rain fall on northern France, destroying wildlife, flora, and almost everything in their path, even human skin. The race against time to find shelter to escape this deadly rain is on. This disaster film aims to make people think about the climate emergency.
5. Comme une louve by Caroline Glorion
Lili, 26 years old, in a precarious situation, raises her two sons and daughter alone. Suspected of mistreating her children, she is scrutinized by social services for a while, before having them taken away. Devastated, thanks to a strong female support network that won’t let her down and the prospect of a budding romance, Lili begins a decisive battle to rebuild her family.
