Falcon Lake

Thirteen-year-old Bastien goes with his family to a lakeside house in Quebec for the summer. An unclear closeness forms between him and Chloe, the sixteen-year-old daughter of the owner. She tells him about the ghost of a boy who drowned in the lake, and that story sits between them all summer. Charlotte Le Bon wrote and directed her first film, from Bastien Vives's graphic novel. It was shot on 16mm and has a grainy, faded image; the summer heat and the lake read like a memory because of that texture. The story stays deliberately undecided between adolescence and horror. The ghost is never confirmed, and the film never quite lets it go either. The age gap and the inequality between the two are addressed openly; Le Bon does not soften the discomfort. It played in the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes and won the Cesar for best first film in France. Who it is for: viewers who like coming-of-age films and stories that walk genre borders. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a clear genre; the film never decides.