Focal · France
Focal, based in Saint-Étienne, is one of the rare audio companies that designs and manufactures its own drivers as well as the finished headphones. Its high-end models, such as Utopia or Clear, are produced in France and aimed at the global audiophile market. It is not a product that everyone can afford.
Mesdames, Messieurs · Sam Sauvage · France (2026)
Sam Sauvage explores the revival of French chanson through a modern electronic lens. This artist is currently beloved in French indie forums for his authentic persona and has avoided the controversies typical of the Parisian scene.
Signes des temps, France Culture · France (Language: French)
Recommended episode: “L’architecture européenne face au défi climatique.” How urban spaces are being redesigned to handle extreme weather and growing social interdependence.
Transamazonia · France / Germany (2024)
This drama is set at the crossing point of personal faith and environmental destruction in the Amazon rainforest. The story refuses to make either side comfortable, following the tension between local religious conviction and global ecological consequences with unusual restraint.
The Deserters (Déserter) · Mathias Énard · France (2023)
Two parallel stories share the same thematic ground: war, its martyrs, and its devastations. In a Mediterranean wilderness, an exhausted soldier makes his way back to solitude after deserting from an unspecified conflict. A young woman arrives one night with her donkey, and their brief encounter becomes part of his journey home.
Alongside this, on September 11, 2001, aboard a small cruise ship, a scientific conference pays tribute to Paul Heudeber, a celebrated East Berlin mathematician, committed communist, and survivor of Buchenwald.
From the winner of the Prix Goncourt, a novel that explores the role of science and memory in the horrors of the last century. Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026. (Original language: French.)