Maria Giménez Cavallo

In northern France, Juliette grows up alone with her father, Raphaël, a veteran of the First World War. Passionate about singing and music, one summer the lonely young girl meets a magician who promises that scarlet sails will one day take her away from her village.

The great oak tree of Scandiano, in the Reggio Emilia hills, is the silent witness of a long history, that of a territory shaped by nature and human activity. From the late Renaissance to the present, revolutions and traditions have alternated, leaving an uninterrupted flow of images imprinted in the memory of the centuries-old tree. Shot using a drone in a 15-minute sequence plan, The Great Oak is the result of a courageous technical challenge, but above all a conceptual one: to overturn the anthropocentric point of view of film narration and offer a more articulate perspective on reality, on the invisible links between living beings and on our role in the world.

Lila has just broken up with her cheating boyfriend and is disappointed, frustrated and hurt. Looking for love and intimacy, she engages in a series of short-term relationships, while her friends offer up bad advice and her ex tries to win her back.

Amin, an aspiring screenwriter living in Paris, returns home for the summer, to a fishing village in the South of France. It is a time of reconnecting with his family and his childhood friends. Together with his cousin Tony and his best friend Ophélie, he spends his time between the Tunisian restaurant run by his parents, the local bars and the beaches frequented by girls on holiday. Enchanted by the many female characters who surround him, Amin remains in awe of these summer sirens while his dionysiac cousin throws himself into their carnal delights with euphoria. Armed with his camera and guided by the bright simmer light of the Mediterranean coast, Amin pursues his philosophical quest while gathering inspiration for his screenplays. When it comes to love, only Mektoub (‘destiny' in Arabic) can decide.