Les cendres du paradis

A film about the rebellion that took place in the French department of Ariège from 1829 to 1832, and continued in a less intense fashion until 1872.

Emilie, a brilliant American violinist, abandons her passion and leaves her country for no apparent reason. Daniel, an engineer and convinced pacifist, tries to fix military computer programs. They meet and live a crazy love. They know nothing about each other.

It follows Jeanne and Nicolas, a couple of seasoned professional poker players, as they prepare for a high-stakes game at an exclusive private club. Jeanne is eager and driven by the thrill of competition, while Nicolas approaches the evening with quiet apprehension, suggesting deeper emotional undercurrents between them.

Cheyenne, a journalist, decides to leave Paris after being laid off and to settle down in the middle of nowhere, far from the society she hates. The trouble is that she leaves Sonia, her true love, behind. The latter, a teacher who loves her job, refuses to give up everything - including her comfort - to follow her. Sonia makes all the efforts in the world to forget Cheyenne, whether in the arms of Pierre, a charming anarchist, or in those of Béatrice, a gay woman who soon proves perverse and dangerous, only to realize that her heart belongs to Cheyenne and nobody else.

Between six and eight o'clock in the morning, two young women go from a diffuse but different discomfort for each of them, understand this discomfort, and discover the fragility of the movement. (CJC)