Phoenix 24
A story from the Paris suburbs turns marginal lives into universal cinema.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The French film Shana, directed by Lila Pinell, has been named Best International Film at the 2026 International Film Festival of the University of Buenos Aires. The recognition adds momentum to a production that has already attracted attention on the international festival circuit and strengthens the profile of a filmmaker working at the intersection of comedy, social observation and contemporary urban life.
Running for 83 minutes, Shana follows a woman approaching 30 whose life in the multicultural suburbs of Paris is unraveling under several pressures at once. Her controlling partner has recently left prison, her grandmother has died, and family tensions force her to confront relationships she would rather avoid. The film moves between comedy and drama without reducing its protagonist to a conventional stereotype.
The story is rooted in a Moroccan Jewish family environment and uses that cultural setting to explore identity, grief, debt, appearance and destructive relationships. Shana’s complicated bond with her mother becomes especially important, revealing how family expectations can coexist with economic insecurity and emotional instability. Pinell presents the Parisian suburbs not simply as a setting of deprivation, but as a complex social space filled with humor, contradictions and competing identities.
Éva Huault plays the central character, continuing a creative relationship with Pinell that began in earlier work. The cast also includes Noémie Lvovsky, Inès Gherib and Anaïs Monah. Pinell’s background in philosophy and documentary filmmaking helps explain the film’s combination of social observation and character-driven storytelling.
The FIC.UBA recognition also reflects the growing importance of university-linked and independent film festivals as spaces for international circulation. Events of this kind increasingly function as bridges between emerging filmmakers, regional audiences and larger global festival networks.
For Shana, the award in Buenos Aires strengthens a trajectory already shaped by international recognition and critical attention. More importantly, it illustrates how contemporary European cinema can transform stories from social peripheries into narratives with broader emotional and cultural reach.
Cinema becomes universal when the margins are allowed to speak for themselves.