A staircase becomes the stage for first love, heartbreak, and the chaos of figuring out who you want.
A teenager discovers the first stirrings of love. Her daily life unfolds in a stairwell. It is there that she leaves her boyfriend before going home; it is also there that she meets her girlfriend. It is there that the powerful emotions of her young life play out.
Direction
Mermoud turns concrete stairs into emotional architecture.
Acting
Soko's magnetic presence in minutes, Meurisse's whole life in glances.
Director
Frédéric Mermoud
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Frédéric Mermoud's thesis film at La Fémis; he later directed episodes of 'The Returned.' Soko was already building her cult following as a musician-actress hybrid.
Released in 2003, it quietly joined a wave of French queer cinema exploring bisexuality without the 'pick a side' narrative pressure—refreshingly messy for its era.
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