Shéhérazade

Zachary is seventeen, just out of detention in Marseille, and his family will not take him back. Drifting on the street he meets Shéhérazade, a young prostitute, and what forms between them is protection and exploitation at once. Jean-Bernard Marlin cast non-professionals, and the choice pays off most in the street scenes, where nothing sounds written. The film refuses to romanticise the relationship and shows instead how quickly these two wear each other down. It won three Césars in France, for best first film and for both young leads, after premiering in Critics' Week at Cannes in 2018. Who it is for: viewers who follow French social realism and stories from the margins of a city. Who it is not for: anyone who avoids youth dramas with hard sexual content and violence.