The weekly slate spans the rugged mountains of South Korea in Na Hong-jin’s Hope, Occupied France during June 1943 in László Nemes’s Cannes competition entry Moulin, and a cursed operatic rehearsal space in Alexandre Castagnetti’s contemporary Parisian thriller Le Fantôme de l’Opéra.
The Theatrical Lineup At a Glance
- Hope: Directed by Na Hong-jin, following villagers and search parties tracking a mysterious beast in mountainous terrain.
- Moulin: Directed by László Nemes, dramatizing the June 1943 arrest and interrogation of French Resistance leader Jean Moulin by Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie.
- Le Fantôme de l’Opéra: Directed by Alexandre Castagnetti, starring Deva Cassel, Julien De Saint-Jean, and Romain Duris in a modern Paris setting tied to a cursed production.
The Survival of Rural Communities and Resistance Histories on Screen
The release details for the theatrical slate highlight diverse narratives ranging from contemporary survival thrillers to wartime historical drama. In Na Hong-jin’s Hope, characters Bum-seok and Sung-ae attempt to defend a rapidly aging village police post while Sung-ki and his companions hunt an elusive beast in the local mountains, only to find themselves hunted in turn. The feature stars Jung-Min Hwang, In-sung Zo, and Jung Ho-Yeon.
Shifting backward in time, László Nemes brings Moulin to theaters following its presentation in Competition at the Festival de Cannes 2026. Set in June 1943, the narrative centers on Jean Moulin, head of the French Resistance, as he is captured while attempting to unify the forces of the Secret Army. Moulin is subsequently thrown into an unrelenting interrogation led by Klaus Barbie, the chief of the Lyon Gestapo. The film stars Gilles Lellouche, Lars Eidinger, and Louise Bourgoin. For director László Nemes, the selection marks a return to the Croisette following his 2015 presentation of Le Fils de Saul, which captured the festival’s Grand Prix.
Castagnetti Updates Classic Literature in Le Fantôme De l'Opéra
Contrasting with historical reconstruction, Alexandre Castagnetti updates classic literature in Le Fantôme de l’Opéra. Set in present-day Paris, the story follows a young dancer named Anastasia as she joins the prestigious Paris Opera. While rehearsing Orpheus—a cursed opera rumored to have been composed by the Phantom himself—she falls in love with a mysterious pianist. The cast features Deva Cassel, Julien De Saint-Jean, and Romain Duris.
Meanwhile, Olivier Clert’s Le Mystère Lucy Lost turns toward fable-like isolation. Lucy lives with her family on a remote island where her extraordinary gifts draw rejection from local residents. When she encounters Milly, a young girl visible only to her, Lucy embarks on an adventure to decode her strange abilities. To achieve a warm, organic visual palette, the technical team bypassed the cold finish of pure 2D digital animation by routing the master digital file through a collaboration with the Transperfect laboratory to print onto silver halide film stock.
Family Quests and Medical Dramas Across France
Domestic realities and personal archives shape several other releases. Rudi Rosenberg’s Quelques mots d’amour, starring Hafsia Herzi, Nour Salam, and Ella Bedoucha, tracks a single mother named Erika raising her family in Sarcelles in 1995. When her daughter Abigaëlle becomes convinced her absent father loves her in secret, Erika navigates the delicate task of protecting her child while assisting in the search. Rosenberg drew direct inspiration for the character of Erika from an episode of the television program Striptease titled “Papa va venir,” after observing a mother waiting in vain for a paternal visit.
Basile Monnot and Samy Bouyssié explore similar familial absences in the feature Papa où t’es ?. The film follows 27-year-old Nicolas, who retains almost no memories of his childhood after being separated from his mother at age three and raised in foster care and shelters. Armed with his dossier from the Social Welfare for Children administration, Nicolas attempts to trace the father who abandoned him at birth.
| Film Title | Director | Notable Cast / Context |
|---|---|---|
| Hope | Na Hong-jin | Jung-Min Hwang, In-sung Zo, Jung Ho-Yeon |
| Moulin | László Nemes | Gilles Lellouche, Lars Eidinger, Louise Bourgoin (Cannes 2026 Competition) |
| Le Fantôme de l’Opéra | Alexandre Castagnetti | Deva Cassel, Julien De Saint-Jean, Romain Duris |
| Sanguine | Marion Le Corroller | Mara Taquin, Karin Viard, Kim Higelin |
On the regional and professional front, Gabriel Campina and John Dauvin’s documentary Ardèche maps the stone villages, deep valleys, and gorges of the mountainous French department through portraits of locals maintaining ties to the landscape. In fiction, Marion Le Corroller’s Sanguine sets its sights on high-stress hospital environments. The story follows Margot as she struggles to adapt to her early days as an emergency room intern, only to encounter young patients with inexplicable medical symptoms while experiencing alarming physical manifestations herself. Director Marion Le Corroller drew upon her own corporate background in finance, where chronic overwork impacted her physical health before she pivoted to filmmaking following the reading of Charles Pépin’s essay Les vertus de l’échec.
Rounding out the slate, Alexander Murphy examines marginalized communities in Irish Travellers, following the O’Reilly family—Pa, Lisa, and their ten children—living in a caravan parked in rural fields, documenting a traditional way of life facing systemic pressure. Finally, Nicolangelo Gelormini directs Valeria Golino, Jasmine Trinca, and Saul Nanni in La Tentazione, which observes a fifty-year-old teacher living under the authority of her parents who begins giving private lessons to a new high school student named Alessio.
The theatrical expansion sets up a competitive box office window across French multiplexes and independent houses alike as these distinct features begin their commercial runs.
