As the summer sun beats down on the beaches of Médoc, in western France, defiant 13-year-old Ava (impressive newcomer Noée Abita, 17 years old when the film was shot) has to face a terrible fact: she is soon to go blind from retinitis pigmentosa. Understandably wounded by the news and constantly at odds with her mother (her father is long gone), she resolves to exploit her summer at the beach to its fullest. In debuting director Léa Mysius’ hands, this resolution takes us to some exciting places as Ava explores her sexuality, falls in with beach-bum bad-boy Juan (Juan Cano) and embarks on an initially larkish crime spree with him that cuts off all avenues back to a normal life…

"Mysius’ startlingly assured, exquisitely shot Ava is a film that doesn’t simply explore the textural possibilities of 35mm film for the hell of it; it makes thematic use of them, to stunning, evocative effect… You can practically taste the wild salt tang of the sea air and sense the youthful abandon in their lovers-on-the-run romance… The shooting format, if you would, makes a broader formal point: The imminent obsolescence of 35mm film provides a kind of metatextual parallel with Ava’s failing sight… Ava is both a complex character portrait and a heartsore farewell to the ephemeral images that will be among the last she sees…"—Jessica Kiang, Variety