La Quête
2026 · 2m
Directed by Léo Souche, Axel Trevet
Genres: dark comedy, fantasy, romance
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
A knight, after a long journey, finally reaches the tower where the princess he must kiss and marry lies sleeping — but on arrival he realises the sleeping beauty does not really match his expectations, and the fairy tale takes an unexpected turn.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Finally, a film that has the guts to torch the princess myth from the inside — the knight's disillusionment isn't apologetic or sentimental, it's the actual plot, and in two minutes these directors nail what takes most prestige dramas two hours to bungle.
A clever subversion of the fairy tale tradition, though the brevity works against the formal precision this kind of deconstruction demands; the tonal shift lands, but there's a sense the film's playing it safe by wrapping dark comedy around its premise rather than letting the contradiction breathe.
The reveal that the princess doesn't match expectations could've been treacly, but something in the editing—the speed of the knight's recognition, the cut before he reacts—transforms a gimmick into genuine character, and that single compositional choice is what separates this from a sketch.