Adèle
2026 · 2m
Directed by Alegria Borja
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, tender
Adèle admires three classmates at her school — but what do they think of Adèle?
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A premise this sincere—mutual admiration as a one-way mirror—could've been maudlin in anyone else's hands, but Borja resists the urge to resolve it, which is genuinely uncommon for coming-of-age work.
The film sits comfortably in the Dardenne lineage of observational restraint, where editing rhythm and the space between glances do the emotional legwork; formally modest but precisely calibrated.
In two minutes, Borja isolates a single structural choice—flipping the gaze from admirer to admired—and that inversion carries the whole weight; it's the kind of elegant formal decision that makes you believe in the filmmaker.