Young Amin lives a summer of idleness, contemplation, and desire under the blazing Mediterranean sun. In his most immersive and sensual film, author of Blue Is the Warmest Colour Abdellatif Kechiche seems to have captured the essence of youth.
France, mid 1990s. Young Amin comes back to his native town on the Mediterranean coast to get some rest and meet old friends. His days, full of sun and sea waves, pass in leisure, idleness, and a quest for romantic adventures. Amin finds out that his engaged friend Ophélie has cheated on her fiancé with the local womanizer Tony. The latter keeps seeing other girls on Ophélie’s request to hide their own affair from public scrutiny. Gradually, Amin joins this endless game of intrigue and love, which involves his childhood friends, relatives,7 and occasional travelers looking for a summer fling.
The new film by Abdellatif Kechiche (Blue Is the Warmest Color) is not just a sensual, but almost ‘fleshly’ picture, which blends together passion and melancholy, apologia for pleasure and heart-wrenching nostalgia for fast and elusive youth.
Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno
Director Abdellatif Kechiche.
France, Italy, 2017.
180 minutes.
Competed at Venice Film Festival.
12+