Les Roses noires

At technical colleges across France, several classes of teenage boys train to become foundry workers and mechanics in the hope of securing a better future. Revealing their hopes and dreams, as well as their romantic endeavors, they explore the question: what does it mean to be a man?

An elderly woman wants to meet her son’s murderer. A sixteen-year-old girl who has crossed paths with a young hoodlum needs an adult to accompany her to the prison visiting room. A young medical supplies delivery man is offered a deal to take the place of a gangster inmate so that the latter may escape. Two women, one man, three destinies that come together in the visiting room of a prison…

It is 1979 and Albertine, 10, and all her family members have gathered in Brittany to celebrate the birthday of her grandmother. Everyone thinks that the Skylab space station from NASA will fall on their heads this summer. The meeting turns into a crazy weekend full of revelations, love and song.

Ariane is convinced that her boyfriend, Jean-Jacques, is having fantasies about another woman, Élisabeth. In an attempt to save their relationship, Ariane encourages Jean-Jacques to pursue Élisabeth, believing that this is the best way to free him from his own desires. Jean-Jacques presents himself at Élisabeth's house, not realising that she is the daughter of the French President.

Goutte d'Or district, Paris, Château Rouge metro station, Georges Clemenceau secondary school. Teenagers, burdened with their carelessness and their wounds, have to grow up. They are shaping their personalities, losing their way, searching for themselves. Adults try to guide them despite the violence of the system.

A handsome 17-year-old who is actually only 14, Lionel is an adopted child living in a rural area. While his father sees him as deficient, even retarded, his mother surrounds him with immense, symbiotic, and protective love. Initially fascinated by the boy's charm, Claire, a young engineer from the neighboring construction site, helps him pursue a budding passion. But by not respecting the limits she has set for him, Lionel finds himself caught in a trap that closes in on him.