The rising filmmaker Atlan has completely transformed the legendary novella that inspired films by Robbe-Grillet and Albertazzi. There is no ‘bas-relief of a woman walking gracefully (Gradiva)’ here. Jensen’s novella, which Freud analyzed in an essay, was originally a story of repressed desire and love. Having made Daniel, a dreamlike film about a boy and a girl, Atlan replaces the archaeologist of the original with a group of adolescents. A group of French high school students travel to Pompeii. The film does more than probe the nature of adolescence; it traces and captures in full the moments that shake that period of life to its very core. The setting inevitably calls Journey to Italy to mind, while a certain aching tenderness evokes Picnic at Hanging Rock, but this is, through and through, Atlan’s own film. Light as a feather yet heavy as time - that is La Gradiva. It is the year’s true revelation.
Marine Atlan is a cinematographer, screenwriter, and director who made her name behind the camera on Jonathan Vinel and Caroline Poggi′s Jessica Forever (2018), Alexis Langlois′s Queens of Drama (2024), and Louise Hémon′s The Girl in the Snow (2025), which earned her a César nomination for Best Cinematography. Her short film Daniel fait face (2018) screened at the Berlinale before winning the Youth Jury Prize and the Ciné+ Award at the Brive Festival. Co-written with Anne Brouillet, the screenplay won the Grand Prize at the 2024 Fondation Gan. Her feature directorial debut, La Gradiva, had its world premiere at the 2026 Cannes Critics′ Week, where it won the section′s top honor, the AMI Paris Grand Prize, from a jury headed by Payal Kapadia — making it one of the standout discoveries of this year′s Cannes.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
