Plante Verte
2026 · 2m
Directed by Adam Lahaye
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, dark
Romain, a young amateur photo model, is contacted by an agency for a shoot representing a new collection's image; full of ambition, he did not expect to fall into a milieu where physique counts for more than human relations.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A two-minute portrait of modeling's meat-grinder feels like the obvious takedown until you realize Lahaye isn't interested in moralizing—he's just letting the camera linger on Romain's face while the world treats him as an object, which is somehow more unsettling than any sermon would be.
Lahaye's restraint places this firmly in a lineage of French cinema that trusts silence and frame composition over exposition; the film's contemplative dark tone recalls both Bresson's austerity and the observational coolness of contemporary auteur work.
The entire film hinges on a single decision—how long to hold on Romain's expression during the shoot itself—and that held moment, that refusal to cut away, transforms what could've been a PSA about exploitation into something that actually *feels* like depersonalization.