A reimagining of Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Beau Travail represented a radical shift in Claire Denis’s work and remains one of her most memorable films. Relocating the shipboard saga to a French Foreign Legion training camp in the East African enclave of Djibouti, Denis’s minimalist approach puts the onus on a potent combination of physicality, movement, visual composition and music. The result is a sinewy encapsulation of brutal passions being held in check by the rigours of military discipline as Adjudant-Chef Galoup (Denis Lavant) begins to desire the youthful vitality of newcomer Gilles Sentain (Grégoire Colin).

The screening will be introduced by Marie-Pierre Richard, Festival Director of the IFI French Film Festival, and Artistic Director of the East Asia Film Festival Ireland.

Notes by David O’Mahony