Slalom, the debut feature of director Charlène Favier, is a sensitive and assured look at the intensity of professional sports and the vulnerability of young athletes. When 15-year-old prodigy Lyz (an unforgettable breakthrough performance by Noée Abita), is accepted to an elite club known for producing the country's top professional skiers, she is thrilled. Once there, she finds herself in an environment of rigor and overwhelming intensity. Ex-champion turned coach Fred (Jérémie Renier) chooses the inexperienced Lyz to be his next star, and under his tutelage she begins to achieve success. But when Fred oversteps the boundaries of his role as mentor to initiate a profoundly imbalanced sexual affair with his student, Lyz becomes increasingly overwhelmed and her performance and well-being suffer. A former professional skier herself, Favier directs the film with the confidence of experience—it is beautifully attentive to the textures and sensations of alpine sports, and incredibly compassionate to its protagonist and her story. D: Charlène Favier, France, subtitled, 2020, 1h32m.

"too rich and too human for any kind of categorization"
–Vulture

"urgent and devastating"
—Roger Ebert

with the support of Unifrance