François Aubinet

Gabriel Laurens, fifty years old, is a «private investigator». When his fifteen-year-old niece Jade comes into his life and asks him to investigate her father’s death, the detective is confronted with memories he thought were buried forever. Confronted with the ghosts of his past, Gabriel Laurens finds himself caught up in a strange investigation involving pretense, fantasy and drug trafficking.

14-year-old Lucie is a resourceful teenager who takes care of her loving yet unreliable father, William, who has multiple sclerosis. Whilst William hangs out in his wardrobe and devises pranks and jokes to make his daughter smile, Lucie tries her best at school while juggling a job in a sandwich shop and all the chores at home. Her vividly imaginative mind and the novel she is writing are her only distractions. But when a social worker is appointed to visit them, Lucie and William elaborate a complex plan to make social services believe they live a perfectly normal life.

Disaster movies tend to inhabit the close-but-not-too-close realm of the ‘what if?’, but Quentin Reynaud’s taut drama evokes a reality that is painfully immediate, as the world combusts around us. Alex Lutz (recently seen as the son in Gaspar Noé’s Vortex) plays a man determined to escape with his elderly father (the ineffable André Dussollier) from a wildfire that is rapidly approaching their forested area of southern France. The pair know all the local roads, and the secret detours, but when they are caught in a dead end, they seem to be running out of possible exits. At once road movie, claustrophobic jeopardy thriller and portrait of a prickly but tender father-son relationship, this finely acted and executed film expertly lays on the heat.

When he leaves hospital, 30-something Basil moves in with his younger sister and closest confidant, Sarah. Living with a psychiatric disorder, Basil tries his best to re-establish a sense of normality in both his work and his love life. But, whilst hiding his illness from his new relatives, how long can he maintain this fragile stability?

While diving in a remote French lake, a couple of YouTubers who specialise in underwater exploration videos discover a house submerged in the deep waters. What was initially a unique finding soon turns into a nightmare when they discover that the house was the scene of atrocious crimes. Trapped, with their oxygen reserves falling dangerously, they realise the worst is yet to come: they are not alone in the house.

Tony and Marie are passionate about Bangers, a trashy variant of the stock car. Following a tragedy, their couple falls appart. Tony hung up the races as Marie vent her anger onto the speedway in violent crashes. When problemes resurface, they have no choice but to resolve their dispute where their community has always solved them : on the speedway.

Daniel, a biologist studying the disappearance of fish, is haunted by paternity. It is by looking for a woman who could be the mother of his children that he will come across a strange fish and discover what he really lacks: love.

Challenging the burden of family traditions, the young Amel and Mashir live a secret and passionate love story. An arranged marriage between him and Amel’s new best friend will put their relationship in danger. Tearing apart social conventions seems to be the only way to stay together.

Meftun Taylan, former member of the Grey Wolves, who was sent to Europe in the '80s to fight against ASALA, now struggles with regrets about his criminal activities after the operations for the fatherland. Dreaming of a clear conscience, Meftun sees it as his task to eliminate such criminals and gangs. He chooses his targets from his circle of friends. Afterwards, he has the cold blooded hitman Cerkez come over from a Turkish prison. The operations are accomplished successfully one after the other. Instead of finding a moral balance, Meftun loses himself completely. After this there is a final mission for Cerkez to buy off his freedom. Meftun leaves his and Cerkez' future to “fate”. A special kind of fate, typical for Meftun.