And Their Children After Them
2024 · Directed by Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma
Original language: French
- drama
The story
In eastern France, two teenage cousins have the summer of their lives when they paddle a purloined canoe to the far shore of a lake.
What it’s like
Sun-faded summer light over a lake and the rural edges of eastern France, with the heat and stillness of long holidays and the restless pull of being sixteen. The mood is wistful and sun-bleached, tilting toward unease as the adult world presses in on the teenagers' small freedoms. The pacing is loose and drifting, built around ordinary days, idle wandering, and talk that circles real worries about money, family, and what comes next. The emotional register is tender but bruised: a coming-of-age story about two cousins learning how much of their future is already set by where they were born. Expect some rough physical confrontation and a steady undercurrent of bleakness, with no gore and little that is gratuitous. It suits a slow afternoon or a late-night watch when you want something melancholy and grounded rather than escapist. It is for viewers who like naturalistic coming-of-age films about class, friendship, and small-town restlessness, and who don't mind a story that leaves its hopes unresolved.
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