THE BALCONETTES (LES FEMMES AU BALCON) After Dark

US Premiere

Following a string of notable performances in films including PARIS, 13TH DISTRICT and TÁR, actor/director Noémie Merlant’s sophomore directorial effort, which premiered in the Midnight section at the Cannes Film Festival, proves a confidently daring tilt of a cultish horror comedy with an emphatically feminist flair. During a blistering heat wave in a Marseille apartment block, a vibrant trio of best friends, writer Nicole (Sanda Codreanu), camgirl Ruby (Souheila Yacoub) and actress Elise (Merlant), sweat it out on their balcony, one primed for people-watching and gossiping – especially around their shared crush, a handsome yet mysterious photographer living in the opposite apartment. A meet-cute scores them an invitation to a late-night party before things take a piercingly sinister turn. Written in collaboration with filmmaker Céline Sciamma who has remained Merlant’s mentor since PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (AFI FEST 2019), THE BALCONETTES is as much a supernatural, genre-defying romp as it is a medley of female defiance in the face of masculine entitlement and sexual violence. –Anna Li