COMPETITION FILMS
9+ Asteroid
Movies for Middle school
Mehdi Hoseinivand Aalipour
Fiction / Iran / 2021 / 1 hr 18 min / Original soundtrack with French subtitles
The idea of Asteroid came to the filmmaker during a trip to the desert. That’s where he met Ebrahim, a little boy with a life entirely devoted to work. Moved by this, upon returning to Tehran he couldn’t get the story out of his head and wrote the scenario. A film about a child’s capacity for resilience.
Far from all modern conveniences in the Iranian desert live Ebrahim and his family. At the age of 12, he takes care of his mothers and sisters, handles all the paperwork, and works with his mother to provide for the family. To overcome the distance of the desert, he helps his mother build a house in the city.
9+ Buladó
Movies for Middle school
Eché Janga
Fiction / Curaçao, Netherlands / 2020 / 1h28 / original soundtrack with French subtitles
Presented at several international festivals, this film depicts with tenderness and sensitivity the passage of a young girl from childhood to adolescence through the deep subjects of knowledge transfer, introspection, and mysticism.
Kenza is 11 and lives with her father and grandfather on the island of Curaçao. To find her own path, the girl has to navigate between these men who are different in every way, the quest for modernity, and respect for ancient spiritual traditions.
11+ A Chiara
Movies for Middle school
Jonas Carpignano
Fiction / Italy / 2021 / 2 hr 01 min / Original soundtrack with French subtitles
With a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2021 prize under its belt, this film takes us deep into the Italian Mafia. An intense, fast-paced drama that challenges the place of family and its role in the construction of the self.
16-Year-old Chiara lives with her family in a small Calabrian town. The whole clan comes together for her sister’s 18th birthday party. The next day, her father Claudio disappears without a trace. Chiara decides to investigate and search for him. As she gets closer to the truth surrounding the mystery of her father’s disappearance, she begins to realise her own fate.
11+ A Chiara
Movies for Middle school
Jonas Carpignano
Fiction / Italy / 2021 / 2 hr 01 min / Original soundtrack with French subtitles
With a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2021 prize under its belt, this film takes us deep into the Italian Mafia. An intense, fast-paced drama that challenges the place of family and its role in the construction of the self.
16-Year-old Chiara lives with her family in a small Calabrian town. The whole clan comes together for her sister’s 18th birthday party. The next day, her father Claudio disappears without a trace. Chiara decides to investigate and search for him. As she gets closer to the truth surrounding the mystery of her father’s disappearance, she begins to realise her own fate.
11+ Fortune Favours Lady Nikuko
Movies for Middle school
Ayumu Watanabe
Animation / Japan / 2021 / 1 hr 37 min / Original soundtrack with French subtitles
Selected for the latest international Festival of animated film in Annecy, this colourful film takes a light, gentle approach to the mother-daughter relationship. Let yourself be devoured by the insatiable appetite of funny, endearing, mysterious Nikuko…
Synopsis: Lady Nikuko is unapologetically plump. She has a zest for life and a love for men who don’t always deserve her affection. She is a cook in a small restaurant that serves local cuisine and lives on a boat with her daughter Kikurin. Life together isn’t always easy, and everything gets shaken up when a secret emerges from the past…
12+ Aya
Movies for Middle school
Simon Coulibaly Gillard
Fiction / Belgium, France 2021 / 1 hr 31 min / Original soundtrack with French subtitles
Presented at the Cannes ACID and the Namur FIFF, where the principal actress received the prize for the best interpretation, Aya will enchant you. A film where the serious subjects of ecology and rising sea levels are counterbalanced by sunny, luminous Aya.
Aya grows up with her mother on the island of Lahou. Joyful and carefree, she enjoys harvesting coconuts and sleeping on the sand. But her paradise is doomed to be swallowed up by the sea. As the waves threaten her home, Aya makes a choice: however high the sea may rise, she will not leave her island.
12+ Softie (Petite nature)
Movies for Middle school
Samuel Theis
Fiction / France / 2021 / 1 hr 35 min
Presented at the Semaine de la critique, Softie centres on a young boy’s budding feelings for his teacher. Growing up in a depressed area and a complicated family, the child will try everything to leave a life that no longer suits him.
Johnny is ten years old. So young, but still interested in things way beyond his years. Living in a low-rent district in the Lorraine, he observes with curiousity the ups and downs of his young mother’s love life. This year Johnny has a new teacher, Mr. Adamski, who believes in and wants to open a new world to him.