UVA's 2022 French Film Festival was a Huge Success!
Thanks to the collaboration of graduate students, professors, undergraduates, and the Charlottesville community, the 2022 UVA French Film Festival was a great success. We were delighted to screen films by directors from a variety of Francophone countries, including Ivory Coast, Senegal, France, and Mali. The films were equally diverse in their subject matter—the festival program included documentaries, dramas, and a comedy. Some highlights of the festival were the screening and discussion of Professor Mamadou Dia’s Nafi’s Father, a film about religious extremism in a Senegalese town, as well as the enthusiastic reception of Sébastien Lifshitz’s Little Girl, which tells the story of a transgender girl in France. Each film was followed by a lively discussion led by a professor from the Department of French. We were also happy to be able to support local businesses by doing a gift card raffle at the end of each screening.
The UVA FFF Committee would like to warmly thank our sponsors, including the Vice Provost for the Arts, for their support. Our festival would not have been possible without their generous contributions. We are truly grateful to have had this opportunity to gather and enjoy a selection of wonderful films together.
FILMS:
Bamako (2006)
Languages: French, Bambara (English subtitles)
Discussion: Professor Mamadou Dia
Director: Abderrahmane Sissako
Outside the modest home that singer Melé and her husband Chaka share with other families stands a make-shift open-air courtroom. The accused: The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the inequities of globalization perpetrated on all of Africa. One by one, witnesses take the in stand Sissako’s pointed, nuanced meta-drama.
Baamum Nafi (2019)
Languages: Fulah (English subtitles). NOTE: While this film takes place in the Francophone country of Senegal, it is not in French.
Discussion: Professor and Director Mamadou Dia
Director: Mamadou Dia
Two fathers are at odds over their children’s marriage, but what starts as a friendly family disagreement quickly devolves into the couple becoming pawns in a bitter dispute about tradition, progress, and the true nature of Islam.
Petite Fille (2020)
Languages: French (English subtitles)
Discussion: Professor Deborah McGrady
Director: Sébastien Lifshitz
LITTLE GIRL is the moving portrait of 7-year-old Sasha, who has always known that she is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find affirmation in a small community of rural France. Realized with delicacy and intimacy, Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary poetically explores the emotional challenges, everyday feats, and small moments in Sasha’s life.
Slalom (2020)
Languages: French (English subtitles)
Discussion: PhD Candidate Ninon Bartz
Director: Charlène Favier
Warning for emotional and physical abuse.
This riveting, Cannes-selected #MeToo drama from debut filmmaker Charlène Favier follows the relationship between a teenage ski prodigy and her predatory instructor, played by frequent Dardenne brothers collaborator Jérémie Renier. In a breakthrough role, Noée Abita plays 15-year-old Lyz, a high school student in the French Alps who has been accepted to an elite ski club known for producing some of the country’s top professional athletes. Taking a chance on his new recruit, ex-champion turned coach Fred decides to mold Lyz into his shining star despite her lack of experience. Under his influence, she will have to endure more than the physical and emotional pressure of the training. Will Lyz’s determination help her escape Fred’s exploitative grip?
Mandibules (2020)
Languages: French (English subtitles)
Discussion: There will not be a discussion after this film.
Director: Quentin Dupieux
When simple-minded friends Jean-Gab and Manu find a giant fly trapped in the boot of a car, they decide to train it in the hope of making a ton of cash.
La Nuit des Rois (2020)
Languages: French (English subtitles)
Discussion: Professor Kandioura Dramé
Director: Philippe Lacôte
A young man is sent to “La Maca,” a prison in the middle of the Ivorian forest ruled by its inmates. As tradition goes with the rising of the red moon, he is designated by the Boss to be the new “Roman” and must tell a story to the other prisoners. Learning what fate awaits him, he begins to narrate the mystical life of the legendary outlaw named “Zama King” and has no choice but to make his story last until dawn.
Un Film Dramatique (2020)
Languages: French (English subtitles)
Discussion: Professor Ari Blatt
Director: Éric Baudelaire
Commissioned as a dedicated artwork for the newly constructed Dora Maar middle school on the outskirts of Paris, Un Film Dramatique is a lively portrait of the first class to attend the school, filmed over the course of four years. The group of 21 middle schoolers discuss the drama of their daily lives and experiment with cameras and equipment. They are the film’s subjects, and also its makers.
With a refreshingly uninhibited approach, Éric Baudelaire (Letters to Max, The Anabasis of May…) offers a new perspective on the realities of our current socio-political moment that is both playful and purposeful. As the students debate the approaching elections and the immigration crisis, they also seek to answer a key political question—what are we doing here together?
