Blanche is dead. She was an elderly lady. When everyone gathers in the village for her funeral, the teenage Zaza arrives with her mother. In the midst of family conflicts, she meets a lonely little girl – her cousin.

Film expert recommends

The young French director with African roots, who has so far only made short films and collaborated on Mati Diop’s acclaimed Franco-Senegalese Atlantic (2019), speaks with a distinctly female voice in Blanche. In a lengthy 26-minute, albeit short, feature, she tells the story of a girl and a girl, their view of each other, the discovery of emotional similarity, reaching into the future and the not-so-distant past. It asks in a subtle way about the possible and fragile feminine and human solidarity. The female protagonists repel and attract each other, despite the difference in age and experience, knowing that they need each other. Blanche is the power of French cinema enchanted in a cinematic trifle.

The film is a part of the “On betrayal. Short films” set.