Humbert Balsan

The Man from London (2008)

A switchman at a seaside railway witnesses a murder but does not report it after he finds a suitcase full of money at the scene of the crime. ...

A Perfect Friend (2006)

"Julien Rossi wakes up in a hospital bed and finds he has no memory of the events that left him in a coma in the early hours of New Year's Day. Was he attacked? Or was his head injury caused in an accident? This is only the first of many mysteries Julien h ...

Manderlay (2005)

In 1933, a young woman and her father discover an Alabama plantation whose inhabitants live as if slavery had never been abolished. Feeling a sense of duty to those behind the heavy gates, she stays to liberate the people and see them through their first h ...

The Great Journey (2004)

Reda, summoned to accompany his father on a pilgrimage to Mecca, complies reluctantly - as he preparing for his baccalaureat and, even more important, has a secret love relationship. The trip across Europe in a broken-down car is also the departure of his ...

When the Sea Rises (2004)

An actress, who goes all over rural France with her monologe "Sex and Crime", meets and falls in love with a man, since that moment starts helping him in his plays. ...

When A Woman Sings (2004)

A documentary about the singing movement in Egypt, and on the role of the song in the social and political conflict, as it shows the lives of Umm Kulthum and Munira al-Mahdiyya and their impact on the women's liberation movement and on the field of singing ...

Alexandria... New York (2004)

An enthralling look at the relationship between America and the Arab World from an Arab perspective. It tells the story of Yehia, a renowned Egyptian filmmaker whose life has been shaped by a pair of disrupted love affairs, one with an American woman named ...

The Gate of the Sun (2004)

Yousry Nasrallah's powerful adaptation of Lebanese writer Elias Khoury's epic novel of fifty years of Palestinian dispossession, exile, and resistance. The film follows the flight of Younes, his wife Nahila, and those around them, from their village in nor ...

Seekers of Oblivion (2004)

Seekers of Oblivion explores the exciting life and adventures of Isabelle Eberhardt. Born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1877, Isabelle left Europe for North Africa at a young age. While there, she consorted with tramps, prostitutes, soldiers, murderers and thi ...

The Kite (2004)

A young 15 year old girl, Lamia, lives in a southern Lebanese village on the border with Israel. She is given in marriage to her cousin on the other side of the border. As Lamia crosses the barbed wire she also passes from childhood into adulthood, as brut ...

Process (2004)

The story of a woman who decides to kill herself. She puts herself through a series of experiences that test the limits of what is humanly bearable in an ultimate attempt to find a reason to live. ...

Grande école (2004)

Paul and Agnes have been going out for quite a while and Agnes is shocked to learn that he'd rather live with two roommates on campus than move in with her. As soon as he meets one of his roommates, Louis-Anault, Paul's behavior changes - he is attracted t ...

La vie nue (2003)

The story is inspired by the biblical myth of Lazarus. The main character is called Lazarus who was a follower of Jesus, brother of Martha and Mary who was resurrected by Jesus. ...

Mimi (2003)

Mimi isn't a star, she's just someone. A close-up of the singularity of a real life. An encounter of someone's particular story, romance, fantasy and territories. ...

The Bathers (2003)

Sexy, gritty and as provocative as a lap dance, The Bathers takes an insider's look at the lives of six women working as dancers at a seedy Parisian peep show. Governed by their overprotective boss, the girls' routine of glittery neon lights and lecherous ...

Divine Intervention (2002)

Santa Claus tries to outrun a gang of knife-wielding youth. It's one of several vignettes of Palestinian life in Israel - in a neighborhood in Nazareth and at Al-Ram checkpoint in East Jerusalem. Most of the stories are droll, some absurd, one is mythic an ...

Women Who Loved Cinema (2002)

Six strong-willed women whose adventurous streak changed the face of film industry in early twentieth century Egypt – a time when the country was, despite the liberal ripples, still steeped in conservative tradition. The film shows how these women, diffe ...

The Legend of Rose Al-Youssef (2002)

A documentary that sheds light on Rose al-Yusuf's life as told by a group of those who lived with her and had close ties with her or through the eyes of those who read about her and delved into history in search of the secrets of her biography. ...

Transfixed (2001)

Bo is a transexual prostitute in Brussels who left home after being abused by her father. She's infuatuated with a neighbor and suspected by the police in a series of transexual murders. In order to clear herself she must turn detective. ...

Every Night (2001)

La Première éducation sentimentale (the first version of L'Éducation sentimentale), re-adapting the themes of first love, the intoxication of desire, and failed ideological revolution (that culminated in the Revolution of 1848) to the May 68 generation ...

Paris, My Little Body Is Very Tired of This Big World (2000)

Lunettes and Myope: two ways of resisting the world. Identical and opposites, face to face or, more often, back to back, in a small room in a timeless space. Twins and adversaries, these two girls make one: Lunettes uses her glasses to help her understand ...

Victor... (1998)

Young Victor experiences a traumatic flight from abusive parents and discovers a new mother in the prostitute Trish. ...

Terminale (1998)

Just before taking an irrevocable and tragic step, Caroline talks to Claire, her lycée friend. Later, Claire gathers five other school friends, and tells them Caroline's secret. The six agree to wage a guerrilla war against their philosophy teacher, the s ...

After Sex (1997)

The end of an affair from the woman's point of view. ...

Will It Snow for Christmas? (1996)

A woman and her seven children live on a farm in Southern France. In spite of the hard work and the mediocre accommodation, their life would be a happy one, but for one person: the owner of the farm, an egotistic and authoritarian individual who is also th ...

The Proprietor (1996)

An expatriated French novelist returns to Paris when she learns that her childhood home is being placed on the auction block. ...

Surviving Picasso (1996)

The passionate Merchant-Ivory drama tells the story of Francoise Gilot, the only lover of Pablo Picasso who was strong enough to withstand his ferocious cruelty and move on with her life. ...

Lumière & Company (1995)

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) ...

Jefferson in Paris (1995)

His wife having recently died, Thomas Jefferson accepts the post of United States ambassador to pre-revolutionary France, though he finds it difficult to adjust to life in a country where the aristocracy subjugates an increasingly restless peasantry. In Pa ...

Boys and Girls (1995)

A documentary which depicts the life of Bassem Samra and his friends and family. The film discusses issues concerning love and the veil. ...

La Lumière des étoiles mortes (1994)

June 1940. The Wechrmacht appropriates the houses in which are living Pierre, his wife Magdeleine, their son Charles, their two servants Louise and Lea, and Mademoiselle, the beautiful jewish governess. ...

Mercedes (1993)

Nubi, a wealthy man with Communist ties, sets out to find his half-brother Gamal, who has been disowned for being gay, to let him inherit his father's fortune. In the process, Nubi is supposed to kill Gamal's stepmother Raifa, a suspected drug dealer, befo ...

The Surveyors of Montmarte (1993)

Sabine (1993)

A young girl is deprived of her baby: her descent into hell begins. Still in high-school, Agnès leaves her alcoholic father, finds a boyfriend and gets pregnant. Giving birth to a baby boy, deprived of him by her her stepmother, left by her boyfriend, sh ...

Walking a Tightrope (1991)

A famous, ruthless writer takes a handsome young worker, with aspirations of becoming a tightrope artist, as his lover and protege, but suffers tragic consequences when he later discards him for another youth. ...

Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990)

Set during World War II, an upper-class family begins to fall apart due to the conservative nature of the patriarch and the progressive values of his children. ...

L'amour (1990)

In a suburb of Paris, a group of teenagers enjoys the last days of summer vacation. They meet in cafes, restaurants or disco, talking about first love, experiences, disappointments and jealousy. Sandrine tries to figure out if she should keep her boyfriend ...

Alexandria Again and Forever (1989)

Set in 1987 against the backdrop of a hunger strike by the Egyptian film industry, Chahine himself steps in to play Yehia, the famed Egyptian director whose life is chronicled in "Alexandria, Why?" and "An Egyptian Story". Obsessed with Amr, the handsome a ...

The Veiled Man (1987)

Claire (Laure Marsac) is a 16-year-old young woman who discovers her father Pierre (Bernard Giraudeau) is not a healing physician but a killer with a bloody war record in the Lebanese conflict. She runs away from home and into the arms of Kamal (Michal Alb ...

The Sixth Day (1986)

Egypt, 1947: in the midst of a cholera outbreak. A washerwoman tries to take care of her family, while at the same time resisting the advances of a charming suitor who's half her age. ...

Adieu Bonaparte (1985)

This big-budget historical epic from acclaimed Egyptian director Youssef Chahine features a crazed turn by Patrice Chereau as Napoleon Bonaparte. The film, an Egyptian-French co-production, deals with Napoleon's occupation of Alexandria and its effect on a ...

Histoire du caporal (1984)

A quiet French peasant has spent three years as a corporal on the front lines in World War I, and one day he cannot take it anymore and goes AWOL, escaping into the Alps in the southeast of France. He first takes leave of his wife before heading into the m ...

Swimming Instructor (1979)

Marie, the charming daughter of Italian immigrants, has a dream : to become rich. In Roubaix, where she lives, she meets and marries small-time crooner Marcel Potier. Together they leave for the South of France where they live happily but poorly. Now, Mari ...

The Devil, Probably (1977)

Charles drifts through politics, religion and psychoanalysis, rejecting them all. Once he realises the depth of his disgust with the moral and physical decline of the society he lives in, he decides that suicide is the only option... ...

The Adversary (2002)

Based on the 2000 book of the same name by Emmanuel Carrère, it is inspired by the real-life story of Jean-Claude Romand. L'Adversaire's protagonist Jean-Marc Faure (Auteuil) pursues an imaginary career as a doctor of medicine in a plot more closely based ...

The Proprietor (1996)

An expatriated French novelist returns to Paris when she learns that her childhood home is being placed on the auction block. ...

Frequent Death (1988)

Jeanne Quester is a psychologist-on-the-airwaves in a radio station. She got a raw deal when she was a child. ...

Thieves After Dark (1984)

A crime story set in Paris about a Bonnie-and-Clyde couple -- how they got together and how they are pursued for a murder they never committed. ...

A Brutal Game (1983)

A strict father imposes impossible guidelines on his disabled daughter which reflect his secret and tortured life. ...

Liberty Belle (1983)

The story of a group of students' involvement with a group who oppose the French-Algerian war. ...

I Married a Shadow (1983)

After a train accident, a woman survives and is mistaken for an other woman she just met on a train before the accident. ...

Aspern (1982)

A publisher seeks information on a writer who died long ago. ...

All Fired Up (1982)

Victor Valance, an absent father and gambler, works with shady casino operations abroad. When he returns to Paris in need of money, he plans to take advantage that Pauline, his eldest daughter now fully responsible for the whole family, has begun to work f ...

Quartet (1981)

When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple. ...

Chanel Solitaire (1981)

The life and loves of Coco Chanel who rose from the bottom with no family or financial support and became one of the most legendary creative icons. ...

Merry-Go-Round (1981)

New Yorker Ben Phillips and mysterious Léo Hoffmann are strangers who are summoned to Paris by a mutual acquaintance. Upon arrival, they meet and soon find themselves tangled in a complex mystery. ...

Une femme au bout de la nuit (1980)

Her mother had advised her to marry to acquire respectability and material comfort, the obedient little girl married a successful Catholic writer a few years later, giving her two beautiful children, a spacious house, a few servants, and glittering social ...

Loulou (1980)

A bored wife leaves her husband for an unemployed, petty criminal. ...

Un Balcon en forêt (1978)

An adaptation of the novel of the same name by Julien Gracq. Four soldiers await a possible German attack on a fortified house in the forest of the Ardennes. ...

A Dream Longer Than the Night (1976)

In this heady, phantasmagoric fairy tale, a young girl comes face to face with a friendly dragon and a magnanimous witch. Upon the witch granting the girl's wish to become a young woman, this surrealist chronicle follows the precocious Camélia on a series ...

Noroît (Une Vengeance) (1976)

After her brother was killed by a notorious all-female pirate gang, Morag dedicates her life to bringing the murderers to justice. Soon, she has become an important member of the pirate gang and has begun acquiring the loyalty of key members. Eventually, s ...

The Conquistadores (1976)

A young couple: Victor is a musician, Claire is a secretary in a publishing house. Their daily life seems so disappointing, so monotonous, that they begin to spend their time daydreaming, both creating their own imaginary world. At the office, she writes ...

Lancelot of the Lake (1974)

Having failed in their quest for the Holy Grail, the knights of the Round Table return to Camelot, their number reduced to a mere handful. Seeing a rift developing between Lancelot and Mordred, Arthur urges his knights to bury their differences and become ...