TIFF 2026 Review: La Gradiva – “A bittersweet examination of a formative period.”

Courtesy of TIFF

A group of French teenagers are embarking on a class trip to Pompeii. They’re in their last year of high school and awaiting acceptance letters for the next step in their education.  These are kids from different backgrounds and social statuses that may never hang out when they’re at school, so dynamics feel a little different, yet the cliques are still the same.  They’re on the precipice of great change, traveling to somewhere that has been unchanged for centuries. 

La Gradiva takes its name from a 1902 book, Gradiva, by Wilhelm Jensen that later inspired a Sigmund Freud essay on the psychoanalysis of dreams.  Freud could have had a heyday with all his theories watching this film.  This cast has to deal with the full gamut of emotions as they navigate life at this crucial junction. Heritage, belonging, loss, mental health issues, self-image, desire, sexuality – they all play a role in the lives of these teens.

Our most central figure is Toni (Colas Quignard), a big talker who is clearly compensating for his insecurities.  He’s determined to find his connection to ancestors he believes resided in Naples while on this trip.  He’s the only one who hasn’t yet turned in his essay assignment and Madame Mercier (Antonia Buresi) is frustrated with his lack of trying.  He sticks fairly close to his best friend, James (Mitia Capellier-Audat). Conversely, Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin) has her own anxieties.  An intelligent girl, she mostly sticks to herself, instead of speaking her mind, like Toni, she gets her frustrations out on paper, drawing and sketching.  While there are still more students in the background, these three characters are our entry to the group, for La Gradiva is less about plot, and more about people.

First-time director (and established cinematographer) Marine Atlan didn’t make things easy on herself for her debut.  Taking two years to cast this film, with a group of twenty amateur actors, and shooting in a foreign country is a difficult task.  Yet, clearly she found ways to make the film work.  La Gradiva is an exercise in observation.  At times, the film can almost feel like a documentary.  Part of this style comes from the dialogue.  While Atlan had a drafted script, dialogue was then altered to match the language they observed from their actors.  This adds to the natural delivery of the lines, especially where the teenagers will be arguing or talking over one another.  It must have been an editor’s nightmare, but so much of it feels ad-libbed that again it seems like we are just natural observers.  

And that is what Atlan does so well – capturing this moment in time, that juxtaposition of the teenage life where one is not yet an adult, but no longer a kid.  At one instant, they will be arguing over politics or art, and the next they are haphazardly mixing crap into a bowl and daring someone to drink it.  You can find pieces of your own memories in these young people, whether it’s remembering fun times you had, the isolation that can occur at that age, or even the trauma of group assignments.  Okay, maybe that last one was just me. But, everything feels very raw and genuine.  

La Gradiva, at over two hours, could have been a directionless flop. But in Atlan’s hands, it turns into a bittersweet examination of a formative period, one where forces both external and internal shape your actions and reactions.  Her sensitive and nuanced filmmaking remains effective until the devastating, jarring conclusion.  A slow burn, but with patience, you’re rewarded with a portrait that accurately captures the anxiety, beauty and hardships of burgeoning adulthood.   

La Gradiva had its North American premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival on Monday, September 14th.  For more information head to tiff.net.