Nouvelles Vagues – day 1: Congo boy, Microstar and Adèle Exarchopoulos
Every day, a look back at the highlights of the 2026 edition of the Biarritz festival dedicated to stories highlighting youth
Film of the day: Congo boy by Rafiki Fariala
Robert is 17 years old and dreams of a career in music. But he lives neither in the right place nor at the right time. Because in Bangui, as throughout the Central African Republic, daily life is first and foremost a question of survival while the civil war rages. And even more so for this young Congolese who took refuge there with his family, regularly sent back to his origins and struggling with an endless administrative imbroglio to obtain their papers which will even land his parents in prison. So how do you make your dream come true when you find yourself having to take care of your four younger brothers and sisters alone and your father – a former nurse – begs you to study medicine to change the destiny of the whole family?
This is what the first fiction feature film by Rafiki Fariala tells us, discovered in 2023 with the documentary We students! which followed two economics students at the University of Bangui. A largely autobiographical story (born in Congo, Fariala arrived in the Central African Republic in 1997 with his family at the age of three months) which manages in the same gesture to embrace the violence of Robert’s daily life and the persistence, against all odds, of the light at the end of this winding path. Thanks to a musical competition which will become his only hope to escape his sad fate. By refusing any miserabilism without looking away, Rafiki Fariala finds the right tone. Through his visual vivacity, the panache with which he orchestrates rap battles à la 8 miles. The enthusiastic reception received in Biarritz, in the wake of the best actor prize won by the impressive debutant Bradley Fiomona in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section, augurs well for a good reception in theaters
In theaters November 25
The revelation of the day: Léopold Kraus for Microstar
Few films about youth are made by filmmakers who are the age of their characters. This is the case here for Léopold Kraus with his first feature film. And this closeness is felt at all levels: in the dialogues of course which ring true but also in the way of approaching the relationship with the feeling of love and sexuality. The codes have changed and Microstar expresses it perfectly under the guise of comedy around the misadventures of a broke beauty influencer, dreaming of becoming an actor and looking for all possible connections to achieve it. The humor – tinged with the absurd – is there. Malice also like this very finely written scene where the irresistible Abraham Wapler and Raïka Hazanavicius – respectively son and daughter of the late Valérie Benguigui and Serge Hazanavicius – debate… nepotism. But above all there reigns in this film an unexpected harshness which distances it from the simple pochade as quickly seen as forgotten. This young filmmaker has a tone and an obvious sense of casting and directing actors who are all excellent. From the first to the second (Félix Lefebvre, Fred Tousch, Michael Zindel…) roles.
In theaters July 8
Actress of the day: Adèle Exarchopoulos in Madder
We never tire of saying good things about her because each of her appearances on screen reveals something new about her. And in his career, already rich in strong encounters (Abdel Kechiche, Arnaud des Pallières, Justine Triet, Emmanuel Marre and Julie Lecoustre, Léa Mysisus, Ira Sachs, Gilles Lellouche…), his two appearances in front of Jeanne Herry’s camera hold a special place. How can we forget her interpretation of a young woman abused in her childhood by her half-brother accepting a face-to-face meeting with him to build a process of resilience in I will always see your faces ? She was the most beautiful gem of this ensemble film. And we find it this time at the center of Madder of which she plays the title role; an actress increasingly overwhelmed by her addiction to alcohol. A young woman who, in spite of – or to escape from – a morbid and deadly addiction, experiences a true intimate and sexual revolution by falling in love with a woman for the first time. Playing drunk is undoubtedly one of the greatest Himalayas to cross for an actor. Adèle Exarchopoulos does this with rare virtuosity thanks to this propensity to make each scene – comic as well as tragic, gentle as well as violent – disconcertingly natural. And thanks to this generosity in the game which makes without a duet with Sara Giraudeau so irresistible
In theaters September 23
