Maxime Taffanel

Whether it's finding the strength to speak truth to power, making a decision that will mark you as an outsider, or taking a risk that will expose a secret - these men and boys prove that sometimes courage is not learned. It is an instinct.

Work up a sweat from the soccer field to the locker room in these drama-fueled four films from Germany, France and the UK that explore how rivalry between teams can spill over into teacher-pupil relationships, high school crushes and brotherly compassion. The short films are: Islands [Inseln] (2018); Play It Like a Man [Un été viril] (2018); Colours (2015); Through the Fields [Passer les champs] (2015).

Lucas is 22. He plays soccer with his local club, lives with his parents with his younger brother Théo, 17. Théo is attracted to boys, and has only confided in his brother. Théo's difference from others forces him to live a secret life. One evening, spurred on by his need for affection he decides to meet up with an older man at a local hotel.

During a training session, 16-year-old Maxime sees the police arrive to question his coach, who has been accused of sexual abuse by one of the club's children. These accusations are going to crack the shell of silence he had been trying to build.

Candice Renoir had put her career on standby for 10 years. When she returns from Singapore to resume service in a port town in the south of France, she feels a bit “rusty”. Despite the obvious defiance of her unit and a cynical superior who doesn’t make her job any easier, she is determined to turn her so-called weaknesses into strengths, solving the most complex cases with her common sense, her acute observation and her practical nature seasoned by a busy daily routine. Only Candice can catch a killer because she knows the chemical composition of a window-cleaning product or determine the hour of a murder from the cooking-time of kebabs… Candice is only naive on the outside, and nobody can resist her!

A family falling apart over a missing girl. This intimate drama traces the increasing trauma of the Morel family when their 17 year old daughter, Léa, fails to return home from a night out. The Disappearance explores every parent's worst nightmare: their child going missing, their fate unknown.