Falcon Lake

FALCON LAKE begins with a summer trip. Thirteen-year-old Bastien travels from Paris to rural Quebec with his family, spending the holidays at a lakeside cottage where his mother once spent her childhood. Removed from his familiar surroundings, he enters a world shaped by long days, dense forests and quiet routines, where adolescence and imagination begin to blur together. At the cottage, Bastien meets Chloé, the 16-year-old daughter of the family’s longtime friends. Although separated by age and experience, the two develop a close and increasingly intimate bond. Their days are filled with swimming, wandering through the woods and late-night conversations, while Bastien becomes drawn to Chloé’s unpredictability and emotional distance. At the same time, local stories about a ghost said to haunt the nearby lake begin to circulate among the teenagers. What first feels like a harmless legend gradually merges with Bastien’s fears, desires and growing awareness of mortality. The atmosphere shifts constantly between tenderness and unease, grounding the film in the unstable emotional terrain of adolescence. Adapted from Bastien Vivès’ graphic novel Une sœur, FALCON LAKE marks the feature debut of actress and filmmaker Charlotte Le Bon. The film premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des Cinéastes) at the Cannes Film Festival 2022 and later received nominations at the César Awards, including for Best First Feature. Combining coming-of-age drama with subtle elements of ghost story and psychological tension, FALCON LAKE becomes a delicate portrait of first love, fear and emotional awakening.