Canadian Premiere
Barricaded inside an after-hours pub, the music can never stop, otherwise something terrible could happen. Bodies drift between stillness and motion, collapse and embrace, solitude and communion. Suspended by unseen rhythms, a modest third space is transformed into a fleeting sanctuary where ecstasy, vulnerability, and collective release become acts of survival.
Frequent collaborators Caroline Poggi and Jonathan Vinel (Watch the Fire or Burn Inside It, MODES 2022; Vinel’s Martin Cries, MODES 2017) continue to expand one of contemporary cinema’s most distinctive avant-garde collaborations. In The Blessing, the French duo illuminate fragile and fleeting rituals through which we find authentic connection. Amid an age of isolation, there remains a quiet resistance in seeking moments of tenderness and transcendence in community, which may well be the light that bursts the seams of an increasingly lonely world.
Erwan Kepoa Falé, Aomi Muyock, Neïla Czermak Ichti, Félicie Vitrai, Barbara Braccini, Fabien Dao
France/Switzerland
2026
In French with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Producer
Caroline Poggi, Anna Dotigny
Screenwriter
Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel
Cinematography
Raphaël Vandenbussche
Editor
Jonathan Vinel
Production Design
Jeanne Dekonink
Caroline Poggi
Caroline Poggi, born 1990 in Ajaccio, Corsica, studied at the Università di Corsica and the Université Paris 8. She has made several films with Jonathan Vinel. Their film As Long as Shotguns Remain won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 2014 Berlinale, and their first feature, Jessica Forever (2018), screened at TIFF and the Berlinale Panorama. Their second feature, Eat the Night (2024), was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.
Jonathan Vinel
Jonathan Vinel, born 1988 in Toulouse, France, studied editing at La Fémis in Paris and has made several films with Caroline Poggi. Their film As Long as Shotguns Remain won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the 2014 Berlinale, and their first feature, Jessica Forever (2018), screened at TIFF and the Berlinale Panorama. Their second feature film, Eat the Night (2024), was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.
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