Nous, princesses de Clèves

Featuring candid discussion about hopes and dreams, love and heartbreak, family and friends, this engrossing documentary makes an inspired connection between classic literature and contemporary teen life in modern-day Marseille as one high school class studies the 17th-century novel La princesse de Clèves.

Ten years ago, the paths of Abou, Laura, Cadiatou and Jacques have crossed Emmanuelle’s. She was their French teacher at a high school in Marseille. Together they took part in a film, Children of the Princess of Cleves, in which, while analyzing the classic text, they expressed their hopes, dreams, and fears. In En Nous, the director re-connects with the protagonists : memories blend with stories of their lives and the daily obstacles they must overcome whilst trying not to lose hope. Now, the sentence of the Princess of Cleves rings poignantly true: “I know nothing can be more difficult than what I undertake”.