The premiere of the new film by renowned French director François Ozon, "When Fall Is Coming," has taken place. The author once again leads us through the hidden corners of the human soul, and what the journey turned out to be — read in our review.

Kind and friendly grandmother Michelle enjoys life in a Burgundy village. One day, together with her friend Marie-Claude, she goes mushroom picking to prepare a dinner in honor of her daughter and grandson's visit. Unfortunately, the joyful event turns into a tragedy, and the daughter no longer wants to communicate with Michelle, taking her son and hastily leaving for Paris. The distraught woman is inconsolable with grief and shares her feelings with her friend. Their conversation is accidentally overheard by another person, leading to unpredictable events.

In his new film, François Ozon once again tries to delve into the human soul, but this time under his close scrutiny are several generations at once. He examines each individually and also observes how they interact with each other. The main heroines, two elderly women, despite their age and past events, enjoy life. They appear serene and happy, although each harbors different anxieties and worries in their hearts. Meanwhile, the younger generation tries to resolve their conflicts, placing responsibility for their problems on the family's past.

In the film, Ozon uses a single event as a catalyst that exposes the characters' long-standing traumas and fears and creates new ones. Moreover, he does not deliberately invent a tragedy but shows that even something as simple as a family dinner can become the beginning of major changes and destruction.

At the same time, the director does not try to be a moralizer or dissect others' dramas with a serious face. Despite all its complexity and tragedy, the story in the film "When Fall Is Coming" is presented warmly and soulfully, especially visually. Largely due to this, there is no feeling that Ozon is judging any of his characters. On the contrary, he pities them, and perhaps even justifies them, because their actions are based on quite understandable emotions: loneliness, shame, anger, confusion. And one of the characters even illustrates the famous phrase: "the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

François Ozon is known for his love of playing with others' secrets, and the plot often revolves around unraveling these secrets. "When Fall Is Coming" is a film that sometimes pretends to be a detective story but is not one. The director deliberately throws in familiar genre elements, gives us several mysteries at once, and we wait until the very end for some climax. But Ozon refuses to build the plot according to familiar canons, allowing the story to arrange everything in its place, just like in life.

"When Fall Is Coming" is a beautiful film that shows that any age is wonderful if you know how to appreciate it and accept the imperfections of the world. Like the main heroines, who reflect not only on the past but also on the future in which they will no longer exist, the film contemplates different periods of life and how everything sometimes intertwines curiously. But, as François Ozon believes, this does not mean that the past must necessarily determine the future.

The new film by French director François Ozon, "When Fall Is Coming," was released in wide release in Russian cinemas on January 23 thanks to the film distribution company A-One.