Cyril Metzger

Paris, summer 1942. Irene is a young, bubbly, 19-year-old Jewish girl. Her family watches her discover the world, friends, new love and a passion for the theatre. The aspiring actress is living her youthful life without a care in the world, but she does not know that time may be running out.

Sophie is a brilliant student. Encouraged by her maths teacher, she leaves the family farm to attend a science preparatory class. Between new encounters, successes and failures, and faced with fierce competition, Sophie realizes that her dream of joining the Polytechnique represents more than an entrance examination but a true challenge of social climbing.

France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing. With her final exams fast approaching and her belly growing, Anne resolves to act, even if she has to confront shame and pain, even if she must risk prison to do so.

15-year-old Emma, pregnant after a rape, defies her repressive rural Protestant community to carve a path of self-determination, transforming trauma into a catalyst for emancipation while confronting the moral hypocrisy of the village and the spectre of World War II around her.

After 20 years of marriage, Maria decides to leave her husband. She moves into room 212 at the hotel across the street, with a bird’s-eye view of her apartment, her husband and the life she shared with him. While she wonders if she made the right decision, many of the people in her life offer their opinions on the matter. They intend to let her know, whether she likes it or not, on what proves to be a life-changing evening.

1967, Mardi Gras. Françoise is a seventeen-year-old boarder in an all-girls Catholic high school. Convinced that she has only one night left before her death, she sneaks out with her friend Delphine to attend a costume party and live the night as if it was her last.

In 1956, advertising copywriter Emmi Creola invents the fictional character Betty Bossi, who quickly becomes a Swiss culinary icon. But as her creation rises to fame, Emmi finds herself caught between growing professional expectations and her own personal struggles — a tension that threatens to consume her.

A quartet of international gay short films, the latest in its popular The Male Gaze collection. These films explore faith and passion. Forgive them, father, for these boys have sinned. Witness how the power of God works in mysterious ways, from sexual tension high up in the Spanish mountains to the castles of medieval France and the gossip-filled side streets of Abidjan in West Africa. Religion can be a man’s prison, but sometimes it can set him free.