A WOMAN’S LIFE

La Vie d’une femme

North american premiere | France, Belgium | 2026 | Drama | 98 min | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
Written by: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Fanny Burdino
Produced by: David Thion & Philippe Martin (Les Films Pelléas), Jacques-Henri Bronckart (Versus Production), Arte France Cinéma, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma
Cinematography: Noé Bach
Film Editing: Clément Pinteaux
Cast: Léa Drucker (Gabrielle), Mélanie Thierry (Frida), Charles Berling (Henri), Laurent Capelluto (Dr Nazari), Marie-Christine Barrault (Arlette), Yumi Narita (Setsuko)
International Sales: Be for Films

Synopsis

Gabrielle, a top-notch surgeon and hospital administrator, never stops — rushing from meeting to operating room, her cell phone constantly ringing, her personal life ever on hold. She is so adept at keeping umpteen balls in the air, she’s lost sight of herself… until novelist Frida enters the operating room to observe her. That experience of being seen allows Gabrielle to see herself in a different light and stirs new desires within her. Actress Léa Drucker turns in another superb portrait, this time of a highly accomplished, middle-aged woman who’s managed to “have it all,” yet is still unsure of who she really is.

Director’s bio

Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet began her career as an editorial assistant at Éditions Grasset, before making her first short, Joujou (2016). Her second short, Pauline asservie (2018), was screened in the Critic’s Week section in Cannes, as was her dazzling first feature, Anaïs in Love (2021), which won the Best First Feature Award at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and a Best Emerging Filmmaker Award at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in New York. A Woman’s Life, her second feature, premiered in Competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.