The Boston French Film Festival doesn’t plan to stick to tradition when it returns to the Museum of Fine Arts this summer.
The festival, which is back for its 28th edition July 13 through Aug. 4, will feature a non-French language film for the first time. Breaking her own rules, MFA programmer of film Katherine Irving is screening the Senegal-set, Pulaar-language film “Banel and Adama” on July 13 in an effort to highlight France’s complicated colonial history.
Directed by Ramata-Toulaye Sy, the film tells the story of Banel (Khady Mane) and Adama (Mamadou Diallo), a young married couple living in a remote Senegalese village, whose love is tested when Adama is compelled to accept his role as chief. France and Senegal “have a complex relationship, a colonial relationship that’s very much a part of the history of France,” Irving told the Globe in a recent Zoom interview, noting that “in this festival, we should be illuminating those sort of colonial realities instead of ignoring them.”
The Boston French Film Festival, which is extending its run to three weeks with screenings of 15 films, is also delivering a lineup that highlights the work of women directors, due in part to the global success of recent films like Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” and Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.” Overall, films by women directors make up nearly half of this year’s lineup.
Quebec director Monia Chokri’s “The Nature of Love” will kick off the festival on July 11. Described as a “sexy” and “unusually smart” romcom by Irving, the film follows a 40-year-old professor who leaves her husband for new love, highlighting tensions with social class and the states of love. Irving says the movie highlights “the euphoria of new love, and then the safety of secure love, and the way those states don’t always coexist.”
“Animal Kingdom,” a genre defying sci-fi film directed by Thomas Cailley, will screen on July 19, immersing viewers into a world where some people are transformed into hybrid creatures due to genetic mutations, serving as a character study of family dynamics. The film screened at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard in 2023, and won the César Award for best cinematography in 2024.The MFA will also host a free outdoor screening of the film on July 23.
Screening twice this summer on July 26 and Aug. 4, “Little Girl Blue” is a docudrama hybrid film written and directed by Mona Achache. The film stars lauded French actress Marion Cotillard, who plays the director’s late mother, French photographer and writer Carole Achache, and explores Mona’s belongings.
“Cotillard starts to really become and embody [Mona’s] mother to the point that it’s a little bit unsettling, but it really gives us this fascinating look at one of the most interesting minds in French art and philosophy,” Irving said.
The festival’s organizers hope to give viewers a chance to see art and film in new lights with this year’s lineup of screenings at the museum.
“To see a film at the MFA means that you’re walking through the galleries, you’re taking in art on your way to see art,” said MFA director of public programs Kristen Hoskins with Irving adding, “Watching a film in a museum recontextualizes it as a work of art.”
The Boston French Film Festival. July 11 through Aug. 4. For more information, including screening times, visit mfa.org.
Maria Jose Gutierrez Chavez can be reached at mariajose.gutierrez@globe.com.