For our 55th edition (12 to 21 April 2024), we will have the honour of welcoming French director Alice Diop to its Atelier. Alice Diop is one of France's leading fiction and non-fiction filmmakers. Her aim is to question French society from the margins, and she has distinguished herself due to her determination to give substance to unique journeys, exploring the personal to access the universal. The Festival is delighted to announce a Masterclass on 13 April from the artist, who represented France at the Oscars in 2023, as well as a complete retrospective of her films.

This invitation is offered in collaboration with HEAD – Geneva.      

Alice Diop's work explores geographical areas that are still largely absent from most cinema screens. Focusing in particular on the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of the French capital, where the filmmaker grew up, Alice Diop offers "a trace" – a memory of the lives of suburban inhabitants. It deconstructs the collective imagination that clings to these territories, which are often described from an outside perspective, and whose representations are constantly reduced to anxiety-provoking news footage. Recognised with numerous awards, the coherence of her work gives a voice to communities that are often ignored or even silenced, exploring the personal to access the universal. It is a deeply political approach that also documents French institutional violence – both physical and symbolic.

Woven with references, Alice Diop’s work brings together a variety of devices that draw on the history of both cinema and literature. Viewed through the prism of the banality of human existence, these observations find expression in diverse settings, from journeys on the RER, to conversations outside betting shops, to preparing meals in the kitchen. Imbued with a faux simplicity (in-camera, real-time, documentary essay), her work transforms the suburbs into a testing ground that is at once cinematographic, semantic and sociological. The political dimension of everyday life is stripped back to an almost excruciating degree, using an artistic approach that is as reflective as it is powerful.

More about Alice Diop