03/01/2023 - Philippe Lioret revisits the archetypal story of Romeo and Juliette with penetrating clarity and great modern acuity

"No-one understands how we ended up here." Yet it all seems as simple, innocent and natural as a beating heart when two high-schoolers fall in love: they watch one another from afar, before talking about the music they like, walking along the road together, sharing the same teenage yearnings… They’re as happy as two atoms naturally gravitating towards one another until they finally form a molecule. But they’re not alone: they’re enveloped by the society around them which they sometimes belong to against their will and which antagonises the rebellious spirit of youth and its acute sensitivity to injustice. Add to this the mechanisms of fate, and love can swiftly veer into tragedy. With Sixteen, a new feature film which Paname Distribution and Orange Studio are releasing in French cinemas tomorrow, Philippe Lioret – known for effortlessly expressing and offering up snapshots of feelings, inclinations and dilemmas (A Kid [+see also:
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"I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to hang around with that guy’s sister. Maybe try hanging out with people who aren’t from Croix Blanche." We’re in the suburbs of modern-day Paris, and instead of the Capulets and the Montaigus or the Jets and the Sharks from West Side Story, we have the social housing estate where Nora’s (Sabrina Levoye) family live, and the house with a pool in the residential neighbourhood where Léo (Teïlo Azaïs) lives, whose father Franck (Jean-Pierre Lorit) is the director of the town supermarket. And it’s from this very establishment that warehouse worker Tarek (Nassim Lyes), Nora’s older brother, is fired after being accused of stealing a 500-euro bottle of wine, but also after defending himself rather too vehemently. It’s an event which will have increasingly onerous consequences for all the film’s protagonists, especially our two young lovebirds who are in their penultimate year of high school and who want nothing other than to love one another…

Using a mobile camera, Sixteen perfectly transcribes the movements, idealism and intimacy of adolescent emotions, commendably helped by the freshness of its two lead actors. Without sliding into a thesis film, Philippe Lioret offers up (a brilliant screenplay which the director wrote himself) various piquant reflections on modern-day societal pressure (relationship with hierarchies, money, the importance of image and the appearance we want to give to the world, financial precariousness on all levels, ambient aggressiveness, tension in family units, raw feelings, etc.); so many micro-elements whose gradual accumulation results in an explosive and devastating situation, even though, far from being a forgone conclusion, this entire spiral is merely the result of an initial misunderstanding fuelled by prejudice. But love stands strong, despite it all, drawing strength from the storm and braving all obstacles to the point of defying even death…

Sixteen is produced by Fin Août Productions in co-production with France 3 Cinéma and Belgium’s Gapbusters. The movie is sold worldwide by Orange Studio.

(Translated from French)