Silhouettes
2026 · 2m
Directed by Maïlys Biteau
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, dark
'You must suffer to be beautiful' is what two models repeat to themselves every day in the mirror; the film dives into the daily abyss of two models ready to do anything to fit society's imposed beauty criteria, whatever the price — including eating disorders.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Beauty-standards critique is catnip for well-intentioned festivals, but Biteau's restraint—two voices in a mirror, no sermon—actually trusts the premise enough to let it breathe; most films about eating disorders throttle you with obviousness, this one doesn't.
The mirror-as-confessional structure positions itself thoughtfully within a lineage of body-horror cinema and feminist documentary practice, though at 2 minutes the formal argument risks feeling more conceptual than fully rendered.
That repetition—the mantra layering over itself, the two voices becoming indistinguishable—is the film's spine; it's a single structural choice that transforms what could be PSA material into something that actually mimics how obsession colonizes the mind.