Titane

This Friday, we invite you to a screening of Titane (2021) — the triumphant winner of the Cannes Film Festival 2021. Director Julia Ducournau became the first woman in nearly 30 years to receive the Palme d’Or.

At the center of the story is Alexia, a young woman from France, powerfully portrayed by non-binary actor Agathe Rousselle. After a severe childhood accident, a titanium plate is implanted in her skull. Years later, she works as a dancer at car shows — and at night becomes a cold-blooded killer.

Julia Ducournau is often regarded as an heir to the aesthetic of David Cronenberg. In Titane, she fearlessly merges body horror, fear of childbirth, gender inversion, and distorted family bonds. Describing the film as an attempt to speak about love without words, the director gives a central role to physicality and bodily movement.

Drawing inspiration not only from 1980s classics but also from the naturalism of war dramas such as 1917, Ducournau creates a sinister metaphor for contemporary cultural, gender, and generational wars — turning into bloody clashes where machines are not merely tools, but active agents and heirs of a corrupted civilization.

A small but important warning: the film contains many shocking scenes.

The discussion will be led by Andrey Amirov (@amirovandrey), lecturer in the history and theory of contemporary art and architecture.

The screening will be in French with Russian subtitles.