Spell on You

A few miles from Paris, on the other side of the northern ring road, stands a ghetto neighborhood with countless rows of dilapidated apartment buildings, their concrete crumbling and iron rusting. A multiracial community has long been rooted here, while most native French families have deserted the area. In tower 216 lives a "model" family of Algerian origin, the Bouamazzas. Our heroine, Aïcha, 25, the eldest daughter, is held up as an example by the whole community. But Aïcha can no longer bear the weight of the community: she wants to spread her wings, gain her independence, and finally cross the Rubicon.

Rivka is pregnant. She has a strange and painful wound in her back that won’t heal, ever since her partner died. The day before his ashes are scattered, Abel, an old friend, shows up unexpectedly at her hotel room. He needs to revive an old memory between them at the Hotel Acropole.