Gagarine

The French social-realist drama is given a smattering of stardust by directors Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh in their offbeat debut feature. Blending fiction with archive footage, the films centres around the real-life demolition in 2019 of Cité Gagarine, a housing project on the outskirts of Paris that was named after the first person in space. Teenager Youri (Alseni Bathily in an outstanding performance) is working hard to repair the building, helped by his friends Diana (Lyna Khoudri) and Houssam (Jamil McCraven), in the hope that it will save their home from being destroyed. When the evacuation order comes through, the building's largely immigrant residents slowly disperse. But Youri, who has long been abandoned and left to fend for himself by his mother, stays on. As he turns his flat into a makeshift space capsule, Gagarine drifts into sci-fi fantasy in a beguiling second half that's steeped in magic realism. The result is a poignant coming-of-age tale that mourns the passing of an era while celebrating the importance of community.