Adolescents

What defines the transition from adolescence to adulthood? A few stifled laughs at the back of a classroom, the list of the hottest guys in school, arguments with parents, the tough times that help you grow... Sébastien Lifshitz takes his time. He carefully observes the two friends, both masters of the quick wit and the punchlines: “What’s the point of taking tech? If you think I’m going to build houses!” He lingers on their explosive relationship and the constant power struggle with their mother, gradually capturing the choices they must make and the slow transformation of his two protagonists. Unsurprisingly, the friends are separated when they enter high school, each moving through parallel worlds. This sweeping film is also the story of two social backgrounds and the forces of social determinism against which childhood dreams come crashing down. From the attacks on Charlie Hebdo to the rise of Marine Le Pen, a French society in the process of fracturing also emerges.

 

Éva Tourrent
Filmmaker and Tënk France's Artistic Director