THE ICE TOWER (2025)

Exactly 20 years ago, Lucile Hadžihalilović came to the BIFFF with her first feature, INNOCENCE, a dark fairy tale starring Marion Cotillard. Now she’s back with her fourth feature, again starring Cotillard (and her star has never shined as brightly as here) and again dealing with innocence spoilt by the onslaught of adulthood. Or a distorted mirror image of that adulthood filtered through the febrile mind of a child. Jeanne, a 16-year-old orphan, runs away from her foster home and ends up sleeping at a studio where, during the day, a film adaptation of “The Snow Queen” is being shot, with Cristina (Cotillard) in the titular role. Her crystalline perfection instantly bedazzles the young impressionable girl and while her obsession for the Queen grows, reality, film set and unfiltered imagination start merging into a magical realm. But underneath the Queen’s icy exterior, less noble intentions are brooding…