Following her bow at 2022 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, Charlotte Le Bon makes a VIFF debut with this thrilling and lush coming-of-age tale of first crushes, heartbreaks, and loss.
The film follows 13-year-old Bastien, who gets paired up with a reluctant Chloé (16) when their families come together for a summer holiday in a cabin by the lake. Wary of each other at first, the two slowly find their footing and establish an easy, exhilarating camaraderie. But with teenage hormones and ghost stories in the mix, lines get crossed and a darkness eventually envelops the summer bacchanals.
Sara Montpetit and Joseph Engel are mesmerizing as a pair of moody teenagers lowering each other’s defenses in an intimate summer dance. Their easy chemistry is contagious and bittersweet, capturing a spectrum of adolescent angst with astounding naturalistic precision.
Everything in this immensely promising, superbly crafted debut, is haunted, and every bright, happy beginning anticipates a darker, melancholy end.”—Jessica Kiang, Variety
Media Partner
Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Monia Chokri, Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Anthony Therrien
Canada/France
2022
In French and English with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Intimate Moments: Short Films by Brendan Prost
Vignettes of loneliness, desire and fleeting connection, immerse yourself in the short, bittersweet films of Brendan Prost — who will also be filming proceedings for potential inclusion in his self-reflexive doc, The Performance of a Lifetime.
Winter Kept Us Warm
Often described as the first LGBTQ+ film ever to screen at the Cannes Film Festival, David Secter's lovingly observed portrait of a burgeoning queer romance came at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in the country
Last Wedding: Jubilee Screening with Bruce Sweeney
Named the Best Canadian film of 2001 by the Vancouver and Toronto Film Critics, Bruce Sweeney's third feature took a wry look at contemporary relationships through the experiences of three thirtysomething couples whose relationships are about to implode.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
Modern Whore
In director Nicole Bazuin's cheeky, stylized documentary, Modern Whore-memoirist Andrea Werhun (Paying for It) recounts her experiences as an escort and stripper in Toronto, debunking misconceptions about the world’s oldest profession.
The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Credits
Executive Producer
Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page, Charlotte Le Bon, Émilie Georges, Naima Abed, Whitaker Lader
Producer
David Gauquié, Julien Deris, Sylvain Corbeil, Nancy Grant, Jalil Lespert, Dany Boon, Jean-Luc Ormières
Screenwriter
Charlotte Le Bon, François Choquet
Cinematography
Kristof Brandl
Editor
Julie Léna
Original Music
Shida Shahabi
Art Director
Alex Hercules Desjardins
Director
Photo by Fred Gervais
Charlotte Le Bon
Charlotte Le Bon grew up in Quebec before moving to Paris. She worked as an actress with French directors such as Michel Gondry and Jalil Lespert. In the US, she shot films with Lasse Hallström, Robert Zemeckis, and Sean Ellis. Le Bon is an artist exploring her taste for strangeness through paintings, drawings, and lithographs. Her passion for genre films led her to write and direct Judith Hotel, a short film presented at Cannes in 2018. Falcon Lake is her first feature film.