This dark romantic comedy is the debut feature for director Yann Samuell. The film follows the intimate but twisted relationship between two would-be lovers, Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard), who first meet as eight-year-olds in inauspicious circumstances: Julien's mother is dying, while Sophie is suffering ferocious bullying at school. When Julien plays a practical joke on the children who are picking on Sophie, a close friendship evolves between the two, which is based on an ongoing game of dares and forfeits. As they grow older, the game increasingly becomes a power struggle as they use it to torment and embarrass each other - but could it really be an elaborate cover for the deep affection they hold for one another?

Mathieu Kassovitz writes, directs and stars in this French hostage drama. The film traces the events surrounding the real-life abduction of 30 gendarmes by local Kanak separatist rebels in France's South Pacific territory of New Caledonia in 1988. Sent to accelerate the release of the hostages, negotiator Capt. Philippe Legorjus (Kassovitz) soon finds himself caught between the demands of Kanak leader Alphonse Dianou (Iabe Lapacas) and the machinations of his political masters back in France, who, with an election looming, are eager to show their decisiveness by resorting to military action.