French-Canadian actor Charlotte Le Bon makes a bold directorial debut with this haunting coming-of-age romance set during a summer vacation, straight from Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Based on Bastien Vivès’s 2017 graphic novel Une Soeur, this eerie, dreamy story of growing pains recounts the experiences of nearly-14-year-old Bastien, an awkward, earnest teenager who falls for the slightly older and more worldly Chloé while their families are vacationing in a lakeside cabin in rural Quebec. But it’s not just young love that’s in the air: something ghostly seems to be haunting the body of water and the surrounding forest. Amid their trepidation about the spectral unknown, Bastien must face the uncertainties of advancing adolescence.

The directorial debut from Le Bon (Le Grand Journal, The Hundred-Foot Journey) is a striking, tonally slippery work that consistently subverts and upends the expectations of the coming-of-age genre, gesturing toward the supernatural while toeing the line between sweet and scary with deft control. Mixing menace and mirth, melancholy and magic, along with the enchanting chemistry between young leads Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit, Falcon Lake is a magnificent first feature that lingers in the mind.

“A weird, wistful coming-of-age debut that is equally charming and chilling … Le Bon’s exceptionally assured first directorial film is full of light mischief yet heavy with horror-movie mood.” – Variety