Rise (2022)

Patrick is a tenacious lawyer specializing in environmental law. France is a schoolteacher who becomes an activist after her husband develops cancer from exposure to a pesticide. Mathias is an ambitious lobbyist working for an international chemical corporation. The paths of these characters collide as the lives of thousands are affected by a tragic act that sparks a powerful movement while the corporation fights to prevent the truth from being revealed.

Nelie escaped a miserable existence by becoming a frontline nurse in 1914. One day, she takes the identity of Rose, a young woman from a good family, who dies in front of her. She presents herself in her place at Madame de Lengwil's house, to become the reader of this wealthy woman.

Ahmed, 18, is French of Algerian origin. He grew up in the Parisian suburbs. On the benches of the university, he meets Farah, a young Tunisian full of energy recently arrived from Tunis. While discovering a body of sensual and erotic Arabic literature that he never knew existed, Ahmed falls deeply in love with this girl, and although literally overwhelmed by desire, he will try to resist it.

Ten-year-old Johnny stands out from his family and his tough neighborhood in Eastern France. He's sensitive, intelligent and interested in all kinds of things way beyond his years. With curiosity, he observes the ups and downs of his young single mother's turbulent love life. Things change when a new teacher, fresh from the big city, takes over Johnny's class. Mr. Adamski believes in Johnny and wants to open a new world to him. The sophisticated young teacher also intrigues the boy.

Ellis French is a young, gay Black man, rejected by his mother and with few options for his future, decides to join the Marines, doing whatever it takes to succeed in a system that would cast him aside. But even as he battles deep-seated prejudice and the grueling routines of basic training, he finds unexpected camaraderie, strength, and support in this new community, giving him a hard-earned sense of belonging that will shape his identity and forever change his life.

Jonas, a 40 something Parisian, is still desperately in love with his ex-girlfriend Léa. When he knocks on her door to confess his feelings and she turns him down, he ends up at the café downstairs. Inspiration strikes and he sits down to write her a long love letter, dodging everything he was supposed to do that day. What begins as a last attempt to get her back surprisingly turns into a vivid musing on the state of his life. Over the course of a day, helped by a wisecracking bartender and an array of patrons from the neighborhood, Jonas has to face his past relationships, his uncertain future and, most of all, himself.

This remarkable animated documentary traces the unconventional upbringing of the filmmaker Jung Henin, one of thousands of Korean children adopted by Western families after the end of the Korean War. It is the story of a boy stranded between two cultures. Animated vignettes – some humorous and some poetic – track Jung from the day he first meet his new blond siblings, through elementary school, and into his teenage years, when his emerging sense of identity begins to create fissures at home and ignite the latent biases of his adoptive parents. The filmmaker tells his story using his own animation intercut with snippets of super-8 family footage and archival film. The result is an animated memoir like no other: clear-eyed and unflinching, humorous, and above all, inspiring in the capacity of the human heart.

Alex, aka DJ Wethu, is a star of the night world. On the verge of burnout, he plays concerts all over the world... Until the day when, in the middle of a festival in Morocco, Alex takes a bad fall and falls off the stage. Immobilized on the spot during his convalescence, he is placed under the vigilance of Abdel, who dreams of becoming an assistant nurse. The problem is that he is not quite! An unexpected encounter, to say the least...

Finally, the holidays are here! Vlad and his friends are so excited! Jérôme, Vlad’s father, is in charge. André, the grandfather of Jeanne and Basile, is also here to help. Six kids, two adults, an eight-hour train trip. Nothing could go wrong. But Jérôme and André miss the train… and watch it leave the station with the kids on board. It’s the beginning of a crazy race for the unlikely duo. While the unsupervised children go wild and have the time of their life, André and Jérôme go through various delays and adventures…

When penniless young writer Labidi meets Elisa he knows she’s the one for him. But Paris is expensive. A captivating film that combines the classic themes of French New Wave cinema with questions about roots, familiarity and distance.