Summer Beats

Gueret and Akoka’s sincere desire to create a “feelgood movie” – with some nutrition, and not just sugar – is commendable. The stakes pre-bus ride to the Drôme department are set, as we’re introduced to our focal characters Shaï (who’s Jewish and played by Shirel Nataf) and Djeneba (who’s of West African descent and played by Fanta Kebe), both youth workers still growing in their experience and professionalism. They’re our lenses through which to understand today’s young French teenagers on one of their first excursions free of parents, and are also hopefully relatable protagonists as adults, undergoing existential stress about their present and future. Together in their close friendship, and amongst the senior counsellors (led by French pop star and reality competition winner Amel Bent), they forge a necessary surrogate family, with Shaï’s horrible brother disapproving of her Muslim boyfriend Ismaël, and Djeneba’s infant daughter supervised by her own unreliable and neglectful mother.

David Katz, [Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/479000/)