WOW FILM FESTIVAL
FILMS 2025
The Balconettes (18)
Director: Noémie Merlant
France, 2024, 104', French with English subtitles
Welsh Premiere
Abertoir Horror Festival Presents:
As a heat wave brings a Marseille neighbourhood to the boil, three roommates gleefully meddle in the lives of their neighbours from their balcony. Until a late-night drink turns into a bloody affair.
Beginning as seemingly a feminist take on Rear Window, the horrors depicted in The Balconettes are painfully real ones, and from those comes the rageful beating heart at the core of the film. Incorporating tropes from horror, mad-cap comedies and art cinema, 'The Balconettes' is a genre-bending, darkly comic and incredibly vital film.
“A punk fable shatters #MeToo taboos. Exploring questions of coercion and consent with a healthy dose of blood and guts, The Balconettes entertains and energizes in equal measure.”
- Variety
“Ghost story, body horror, feminist comedy. Noémie Merlant, familiar as a fine actress from Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, packs a good deal into her sophomore feature as director. Pedro Almodovar looms over all these shenanigans, which could be read as Women on the Verge of Heat Exhaustion.” - Deadline
⭐Queer Palm Nominee - 77th Cannes Film Festival
