La Vénus d'argent

Jeanne Francoeur is 24 and lives in a gendarmerie barracks with her father and younger siblings. With their mother gone and their authoritarian father dominating the household, Jeanne has long carried responsibilities far beyond her age. Determined to escape this suffocating environment, she becomes obsessed with a single goal: building a future in the world of high finance. Self-taught and fiercely ambitious, Jeanne pushes her way into an environment governed by complex rules, competition and power structures. Moving between the rigid discipline of the barracks and the sleek offices of the financial district, she slowly reinvents herself in order to belong. Yet as her ambitions grow, so does the tension between the life she is trying to build and the one she is trying to leave behind. In LA VÉNUS D’ARGENT (Spirit of Ecstasy), director Héléna Klotz portrays the ascent of a young woman navigating class, gender expectations and ambition in contemporary France. Blending social drama with elements of a psychological character study, the film explores the price of upward mobility and the fragile boundaries between determination and obsession. LA VÉNUS D’ARGENT had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2023, where it screened in the Platform competition section.