A teenager living in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother is determined to escape her marginal life and make something of herself. But the odds are stacked against her…
Former documentarians, the Dardenne brothers hit on a emphatically authentic naturalism with an aesthetic involving long, handheld travelling shots, no score, the body moving through space in real time. Rosetta was their second dramatic feature, and it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes from a jury headed by David Cronenberg. In the title role, Émilie Dequenne, 17, won the Palme for best actress. The film had a tremendous impact in its native Belgium, where legislation was passed to support employment opportunities for young people, known as the “Rosetta plan”. Sadly Émilie Dequenne passed away in May this year from cancer at the age of 43.
Rosetta is indeed a great film, but it has a fearsome unity, an unshakable commitment to rendering the contours of a destitute life and the ever present possibility of spiritual transformation, that are altogether uncommon.
Kent Jones, Criterion
A stunning and remarkable achievement… a luminous and compassionate account of a young woman struggling to climb out of the swamp of want.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
Media Partner
Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Émilie Dequenne, Anne Yernaux, Olivier Gourmet, Fabrizio Rongione
Belgium
1999
In French with English subtitles
Palme d’Or and Best Actress Award, Cannes Film Festival
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Screenwriter
Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Cinematography
Alain Marcoen
Editor
Marie-Hélène Dozo
Original Music
Jean-Pierre Cocco
90s, Baby!
Ten years. 11 weeks. 90 films from the 1990s. This summer, 90’s Baby! takes a deep dive into a defining decade of cinema.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
Three Kings
George Clooney headlines David O Russell's bold, brazen attempt to get to grips with the immediate aftermath of Operation Desert Storm, as 4 US soldiers try to liberate a missing shipment of gold amidst the chaos and carnage.
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they crisscross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
Election
Tracy Flick (Reece Witherspoon) is running for Student President, but Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick) has other ideas... This remarkably sour millennial comedy from Alexander Payne (The Holdovers; Sideways; The Descendents) hits twice as hard today.
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Ghost Dog (Forest Whitaker) is an assassin, but he's also an existential loner who adheres to his personal code. Despite the thriller trappings, this is really a lampoon of that genre, and a melancholy reverie for the cultural melting pot we call home.
The Straight Story
David Lynch goes a different direction in this linear Midwestern about a septuagenarian (Richard Farnsworth) who drives nearly 400km on a lawnmower to visit his ailing brother (Harry Dean Stanton).
90s Surprise Film
The 90s movie we have all been missing... Join us for a celebratory wake for this year's 90s, Baby series! What you will be seeing is top secret (no, not Top Secret!, that was 1984) but it will be at least 26 years old and it will be new to this series.
The Wind Will Carry Us
Kiarostami's dry comic masterpiece follows a Tehrani film team's thwarted attempts to document a traditional Kurdish funeral... Trouble being, there's no one to bury, and, worse, virtually no cell service...
Fight Club
1999 was a very good year for movies, but nothing captured millennial angst quite so vividly as David Fincher's bruising black comedy about what it means to be a man today. This modern classic does everything short of rattling your seat to get a reaction.