What are Víctor and Rainer looking for when they board a train to venture into the claustrophobic Parisian night? The Atomic Age, Héléna Klotz's first feature film — winner of the prestigious Jean Vigo Award recognising young filmmakers — offers a nocturnal journey through the city, desire and friendship, transporting us to an oniric forest in anticipation of a new day. As Víctor and Rainer make their way through Paris, in step with the cadence of their words and electronic music, encounters and disappointments unfold in succession, immersing the viewer in emotional disorientation. The film neither explains nor judges the characters' fate; rather, it invites the viewer to observe them up close.

Between the nostalgia and disillusionment of a generation, L’âge atomique is a full-blown cinematic experience: it brings us close to the bodies as Claire Denis's camera would, to spatial melancholy as in Bertrand Bonello's films, and to luminous abstraction as in the work of Philippe Grandrieux.

A blank cheque to Catalan filmmaker Mar Coll, director of Tres dies amb la família (2009), Tots volem el millor per a ella (2013) and Matar al pare (2018).

Text written by the Moving Cinema D'A Young Programmers.