Films that examine the experiences and influences that shape a life. Youthful explorations of identity, the nascent sexuality of young adults, stresses and successes in early careers, the first flexing of newfound liberation; the nations and situations these films survey may be diverse, but all depict potent elements of emerging identity.
Festival Programme
Films — by Strand
Becoming
Gagarine
A soon-to-be-demolished social housing estate, named after Yuri Gagarin, in the Parisian banlieue provides the earthly anchor for weightless flights of fancy in this wondrous and moving debut feature.
Honey Cigar
Cigare au miel
A young French-Algerian woman, Selma, navigates emerging sexual desires under the constraints of her family’s patriarchal notions of virginity, intimacy and womanhood in this empowering coming-of-age drama.
Murina
Railing against an oppressive, overbearing father, a teenage girl embraces independence and flirts with desire over the course of a formative weekend in this sunny, sinister Croatian drama.
Souad
Writer/director Ayten Amin’s captivating second feature explores the entangled contradictions of living up to the expectations of God and family while balancing the desire for an Insta-worthy life in modern Egypt.
Tigers
Tigrar
Based on a true story, Tigers is a riveting look at the price of success in the cut-throat world of professional football.
To Chiara
A Chiara
Offering an intimate look into organised crime in the Calabria region of Italy, To Chiara forgoes the shock-value of violence and drug addiction to consider the heartbreaking impact on family and culture.
Unclenching the Fists
Razzhimaya kulaki
The withering grip of the patriarchy pervades Kira Kovalenko's Cannes Un Certain Regard-winning tale of a young woman coming of age within a suffocating family in Russia’s desolate North Caucasus.