PARIS, 13TH DISTRICT
Les Olympiades, Paris 13e, France, 2021, 106 min., feature film
An adaptation of the comic book bestseller, Adrian Tomine’s Killing and Dying. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, acclaimed French director Jacques Audiard presented a black-and-white film where he takes a look at contemporary 30-year-olds who dabble in life and seek sexual adventures instead of more serious relationships. The story is set in Les Olympiades – the 13th district of Paris, among the skyscrapers of a Parisian apartment block. Audiard has shot a romantic tale of lonely millennials in a decidedly unromantic-looking neighbourhood and populated it with characters convinced they are better off alone. The well-educated Emilie (Lucie Zhang) works in a call centre and rents a bedroom in her apartment in Les Olympiades. She reluctantly accepts a male roommate but falls in love with Camille, a black man (played by Makita Samba), with a kind smile. But he is more interested in Nora (Noémie Merlant), a law student in her thirties, whom he joins as an employee of a real estate firm. Nora, meanwhile, spends her evenings video-chatting with Amber (Jehnny Beth).