English summary

“original coming-of-age drama”

Headstrong 13-year-old Ava (Noée Abita) is on holiday at the coast with her mother and baby sister. A black German shepherd dog and its mysterious, cool owner Juan (a Roma boy aged seventeen) catch her attention. Ava receives the unexpected news that she will soon become blind. Her mother does her best to downplay the catastrophe while Ava deals with the news in her own way and wants to enjoy everything this summer with her first love has to offer.

What happens next we’ll leave unsaid because Ava’s meandering plot of one of the film’s charms. It leads us to a couple of curious places and into unusual situations. Spoiler alert: we’ll mention only their hilarious Bonnie & Clyde antics on the beach and in the dunes. During their adventures Ava enjoys to the full everything that Juan embodies: freedom, danger, adventure and sex.

Amid beautiful images of summer and in a light-hearted and often funny way, Ava is an energetic film that shows us how turbulent the emotional life of a young teen can be. At the Cannes Film Festival filmmaker Léa Mysius won the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers Prize for Ava. And rightly so. This is a cinematic gem of rare beauty and originality! Léa Mysius was only twenty-seven when she directed the film and looks set to enjoy a promising future.