With Portrait of Lady on Fire French director Céline Sciamma established herself as one of the most exciting and prominent filmmakers working. For those who have followed her career they will know that she has developed to this position through a series of groundbreaking films: groundbreaking because they foreground female friendship and desire with a cinematic storytelling which is as refreshing as it is enthralling. She also captures the frailties, intensities and insecurities of youth particularly in her early films and writing for other directors. We've created Céline Sciamma - Portrait of a Filmmaker on Fire - a mini season of her work you can enjoy online.

At the beginning of summer, 10-year-old Laure (Zoé Héran) and her family move to a new home in Paris. While exploring her new neighbourhood, Laure befriends a local girl who assumes that Laure is a boy. Laure doesn’t correct her and embarks on a summer-long reinvention as ‘Mickäel’. Céline Sciamma’s coming-of-age portrait of a child navigating their identity and place is intimate, empathetic and timelessly relevant.

Our Cinema Curator Mark Cosgroves adds:

"My first introduction to Sciamma was this delicate coming-of-age drama which quietly, with great cinematic naturalism explores the territory between birth sex and gender. And at the film’s heart a beautiful performance from the 10 year old Zoé Héran."

---