There’s often a simplicity to French films. They tell their stories slowly and replace showy Hollywood action with stripped-back examinations of human life. That’s the case with classics like The 400 Blows and Contempt, and also with contemporary films such as Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood (2014), Sébastien Lifshitz’s Adolescents (2019), and Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister (2025). Herzi’s film follows Fatima, a 17-year-old Muslim girl from the outskirts of Paris, who must learn how to navigate her world when she discovers she’s attracted to women. Fatima experiences a first kiss, a first love, and a first heartbreak, all while making peace with the ways her sexuality conflicts with every part of her upbringing. Nadia Melliti plays the quietly moving protagonist in a performance that earned her last year’s Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. —Jeanne Malle