A stunning directorial debut that was a big winner at Cannes – a coming of age story set at the foot of Mount Vesuvius that announces the arrival of a major new talent of French cinema.
A devastating, burning love story that will haunt you forever.
La Gradiva 2026
For her stunning feature debut, La Gravida, cinematographer turned director Marine Atlan tackles the coming of age genre in the most French way possible, delivering a sprawling chronicle of teenage angst that starts off as a laid-back class trip to Italy and gradually turns into a devastating tale of loss. Featuring an impressive cast of unknowns, this deserved winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize announces the arrival of a formidable new talent.
What makes Atlan’s film feel at once fresh and part of a long tradition of great French teen flicks is how she fills it with new faces, outfits, attitudes and sexual preferences, yet portrays the kind of dramas that have been happening since drama was first invented. Indeed, the iconic setting of La Gravida, which follows a high school group to Naples and Pompeii, frames this story of unrequited love and adolescent turmoil against a backdrop of precious artifacts from ancient history — frescoes, statues and calcified bodies in agony — that depicted the very same things thousands of years ago.
Times may have changed, and everyone may be glued to their phones now, but feelings are still feelings.
- Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter