Cross Words

A strange and macabre discovery in Paris in 2019: two bodies are found in the pond of a peaceful park. This is fuel for speculation, also by the group of friends in Cross Words. As the news story takes on a life of its own, we gradually get to know these young people in their thirties.

“This article is full of shit,” immediately says Boris at a party. He claims he was there when the bodies were found, and he totally disagrees with the conclusions drawn by the police—though his friends question his version of the story. But that’s not all they talk about.

Filmmaker Mario Valero follows their conversations and relationships up to 2021. From break-ups to crossword puzzles, an unwanted pregnancy to the Covid pandemic, the lives of these friends flow by in a relaxed and entirely natural way—although the boundary between fiction and reality sometimes feels paper thin. This provocative portrait of a generation, centering on stories and relationships, feels especially warm and vivid thanks to the home video-like camera style in classic 4:3 aspect ratio.

Nominated for IDFA Award for Best First Feature