Stars at Noon

Adapted from the Denis Johnson novel of the same name, Claire Denis’s most recent film is an erotic political thriller set in the tropics. It follows the romance between a young American journalist who’s on a downward spiral and an enigmatic English businessman as they try to escape legal problems in Nicaragua. Denis swaps the novel’s setting (the Sandinista Revolution) for today’s global pandemic, revisiting several of the key themes of her filmography: intimacy, desire and colonialism’s legacy in the 21st century. Winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes film festival.