From 17 May 2021, the Institut français reopens its doors and goes Beyond Words, onsite, online, or both, with its festival of literature!
It is largely thanks to literature that we have managed to get through this year confined to our rooms, where imagination was synonymous with escape. Now great literature is back in top form and in touch with current affairs.
Expect the hottest publications, readings, exclusive conversations, screen adaptations and a great line-up including acclaimed authors Maylis de Kerangal, Laurent Binet, Ananda Devi, Douglas Stuart or Eric Vuillard, and new voices Rebecca Watson, Alice Zeniter, Julia Kerninon and Delphine Minoui, to name but a few.
Many of them will take us beyond borders and out of our comfort zone, tackling the Syrian war, the Franco-Algerian relationship, decolonial feminism or poverty.
Some others will play distorting reality and history, from the conquest of Europe by the Incas, and the exquisite illusion of the art of trompe l’oeil to the complete manipulation of the audience by Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton in the brilliant BAFTA-winning The Father.
From Spiral to noir revival, Olivier Norek will also give you some thrills and spills, while Agnès Poirier will tell us the fascinating history of Notre-Dame de Paris.
And this is only a glimpse of the tremendous programme IF have concocted for you!