Tropic (Edouard Salier, France, 2022, 111')
The year is 2041. Mankind continues to explore the deepest reaches of space in an urgent attempt to find a new home in the stars. In hopes of becoming France’s representatives for the upcoming Eternity Mission, twin brothers Lázaro and Tristán spend their days and nights rigorously training at a prestigious military academy in preparation for their Astronaut tests. When a freak accident deforms and impairs Tristán, the most talented of the two, Lázaro is 
forced to contend with his brother’s new reality in a cut-throat environment that seeks only the best and brightest.

A deeply humane drama that invests ample time in portraying character relationships before introducing conflict and pushing its family unit to breaking point, Tropic is understated and all the more potent for how imperceptibly it burrows under our skins. With assured direction, stunning 16mm cinematography and a gentle grasp of tone, writer-director Edouard Sallier has crafted an intoxicatingly earnest film about the depths of brotherly love, the yearning for unattainable perfection and a testament to the force of one’s willpower in the face of unfair and insurmountable odds.

Falcon Lake (Charlotte Le Bon, France/Canada, 2022, 100')
A carefree summer vacation with the family takes on far greater significance when Bastien, a naive 13-year-old, develops his first genuine crush on Chloé, their host's spirited daughter. A few years older than him, she takes pleasure in being a teen mentor who introduces Bastien to drinking, parties and flirting as their relationship teasingly wavers between friendship and the possibility of something more. But Chloé’s morbid fascination with ghosts starts to leave the realm of local legend and teen fantasy and, gradually, Falcon Lake takes on the foreboding weight of a self-fulfilling prophecy - as if an inescapable doom is welcomed into existence.

An atmospheric slow-burn that beautifully portrays the emotionally rich and nuanced lives of its young characters as well as teenagers’ love of transgression, Falcon Lake’s lush 16mm cinematography bathes in a twilight glow that captures the hazy shimmer of fleeting love and life caught in transition between childhood and adulthood. 

Driven by achingly authentic and tender performances from Sara Montpetit and Joseph Engel, Charlotte Le Bon’s immersive directorial debut is a wistful coming-of-age summer fling crossed with a poetic ghost story - a film that confidently works an intoxicating spell and will haunt you with an unshakeable impression long after the end credits have stopped rolling