The Second Act

Max, a witty and brave 12-year-old, feels like he has two families instead of one. In and after school, he spends all his time with his two best friends Tom and Vivian, who are always there to make life easier for each other. Together, they are The Fantastic Three. His real family on the other hand, is messy, with a depressed single mother and a brother in jail.

Casablanca, Morocco. A trio of women, with the police on their tail, embarks on a long escape that takes them across the rugged red terrain and flower-filled valleys of the Atlas to finally reach the Atlantic coast.

Ten days into the competition, the International Games are a complete fiasco for the French delegation as they’ve consistently failed to win any gold medals. All hopes now rest on Paul, an outstanding shooting champion, though somewhat immature and not particularly clever. As the event draws near, he has to share his room with Jacob, a carefree swimmer from Vanuatu, who seems more focused on the village’s “extra-curricular activities” than on his own races.

Sylvia is a social worker who leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her AA meetings. This is blown open when Saul follows her home from their high school reunion. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.

Ten-year-old Johnny stands out from his family and his tough neighborhood in Eastern France. He's sensitive, intelligent and interested in all kinds of things way beyond his years. With curiosity, he observes the ups and downs of his young single mother's turbulent love life. Things change when a new teacher, fresh from the big city, takes over Johnny's class. Mr. Adamski believes in Johnny and wants to open a new world to him. The sophisticated young teacher also intrigues the boy.

Victor, a young magician on the rise, raises his daughter Lison alone. But Jacques, his whimsical stepfather, interferes in the girl's education against his wishes. An unlikely pairing that will have as its referee Nina, Victor's childhood friend, with a strong character.

While alone in a nightclub, straight-laced Lui meets sensitive but troubled punk kid Ama. Mesmerized by his split tongue, she becomes obsessed with body modification and soon wants the same treatment. After Ama's heavily-tattooed friend Shiba pierces her tongue, Lui finds herself inexorably drawn to both men – and to her growing list of desires, she now adds a tattoo.

Rose, 78-year-old, has just lost her beloved husband. When her grief gives way to a powerful impulse to live her life, making her realize that she can still redefine herself as a woman, the whole balance of the family is upset.

Jacques Belin, presenter of a silly TV show, gets drunk after receiving an award and misses the train bringing his TV-soap-star fiancée. He meets up with Frède, just out of prison after a three year sentence and, in between numerous arguments and Jacques' break-up with his girlfriend, the two of them get drunker together, going across Paris in search of more alcohol and adventure.

Narumi is on bad terms with her husband, Shinji, when, one day, Shinji goes missing. He comes back a couple of days later, but he seems like a totally different person, and he is now gentle and tender. He goes for a walk every day. Meanwhile, journalist Sakurai covers the story of a family that was brutally murdered, when an unexplained phenomenon takes place. Shinji Kase tells his wife that he came to Earth to invade.

When her partner Pat unexpectedly dies, Angie is left to worry about the flat in which the couple lived together for over 30 years. Supported by her chosen family, Angie begins a later-life journey into emancipation.

Founded in 1930, Troisgros has held three Michelin stars for 55 years. The children of the fourth generation, Marie-Pierre and Michel's sons are continuing the family business: César runs the Michelin-starred restaurant, "Le Bois sans feuilles" ("The Leafless Wood"), and Léo is in charge of one of the other two Troisgros restaurants, "La Colline du colombier" ("The Dovecote Hill"). From the daily market to the cheese maturing cellars, via the vineyard, the cattle farm and the vegetable garden adjacent to the restaurant, Menus-Plaisirs is an intimate, sensory journey through the kitchens of one of the world's most prestigious restaurants.

Returning to France after a long exile, pianist Mathias Vogler reunites with his mentor, Elena, to prepare a concert. In a park, an encounter with a child who looks just like him will lead him to Claude, the woman he once loved.

An expelled boxing champion, who now is a high-school teacher, witnesses intolerable violence and throws her first punch to build justice against it, while putting on a mask.

Stressed and overworked, famous French movie star Michel Blanc is beginning to wear down, physically and mentally, from the pressure and demands of fame. Already in a fragile state of mind, strange events start to transpire all around him, and he gradually loses his grip. Taking the advice of a psychiatrist, Blanc retreats to the countryside with his friend Carole Bouquet, but Blanc still has not managed to escape all of his problems.

A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores and takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. Slowly, her ritualized daily routines begin to fall apart.

Lydia, a midwife very invested in her work, is in the middle of a breakup. At the same time, her best friend, Salomé, announces to her that she is pregnant and asks her to follow her pregnancy. The day Lydia meets Milos, a one-night stand, while she is holding her friend's baby in her arms, she sinks into a lie, at the risk of losing everything.

At the age of 40, Leila has spent her entire life caring for her parents and four brothers. A family that is constantly arguing and under pressure from various debts in the face of sanctions against Iran. While her brothers are struggling to make ends meet, Leila makes a plan.

Two dimwitted friends hatch a money-making scheme after discovering a giant fly in the trunk of a car.

An upper middle-class French family celebrates a birthday in a restaurant. In one evening and during one meal, family history, tensions, collective and separate grudges, delights, and memories both clash and coalesce.