La Gradiva

ERIC SAYS Marine Atlan’s first feature as director—after several short films and a successful career as a director of photography—is an absolute stunner. Following a group of French high-schoolers on a class trip to Pompeii, Atlan announces her film as something different from its early minutes. As the students travel together by train, two secret themselves to another compartment to have sex, while another holds court discussing the family roots he intends to explore when they arrive, and others gossip and tease and work on assignments. It’s all very real, and all happening at once—setting the stage for the changes big and small that unfold as soon as they arrive. At its core, La Gradiva is about a friendship between two young men—the straight class clown and his openly gay, happily Grindr-ing bestie. Amidst the turmoil of adolescence, theirs is a friendship that feels sturdy, even straightforward. But is anything in life really that simple?

La Gradiva conjures a coming-of-age drama on an epic scale, one that wrestles with some of the most complicated things in life—sexuality, politics, heritage, and death. It won the Grand Prize in the Critic’s Week section at Cannes, where it was also nominated for both the Caméra d’Or and the Queer Palm. If you enjoy staying current with the state of world cinema, consider it a highly rewarding must-see.