[Thor Joachim Haga]

I just came back from Chie Hayakawa’s RENOIR (2025), which was part of last year’s official competition programme in Cannes. It’s a 2026 film over here. It’s certainly a good coming-of-age story, although I didn’t quite grasp Fuki’s actions and motivations, she was very hard to read (was it a longing for connections?). But some fine recurrent visual motifs, like bridges (“crossing over” – death, class, into adulthood). Compared to the Taiwanese coming-of-age film LEFT-HANDED GIRL, it didn’t quite reach those heights (that remains my favourite of the year so far), but a film that can be unwrapped on subsequent viewings; the blurred lines between reality and dreams, past and present, for example.