As they await their university acceptance letters, a spirited group of teens travels south by train with their Latin teacher, Madame Mercier (Anne Brouillet). Among the ruins of Pompeii—where the eruption of Vesuvius froze a civilization in time—they begin to confront the murky realities of who they are now, and who they are becoming. But the trip proves as emotionally volatile as it is enlightening.
Gradually consumed by the demands of her role, Mercier struggles to keep her students in line, chief among them the attention-seeking Toni (Colas Quignard), whose unexpected ties to the region hint at deeper currents; his cocky object of affection, James (Mitia Capellier); and Suzanne (Suzanne Gerin), an introspective outsider. As tensions simmer within the group, rivalries, pent-up emotions and betrayals build with mounting intensity. One by one, they are swept up in the region’s overwhelming beauty and their own awakening desires, until they surrender to them completely.
"We aren't serious when we are 17." So goes the opening line of "Novel," the Aruthr Rimbaud poem—a poem that forms the basis of this coming-of-age story and a line that is achingly rendered by director Marine Atlan. At once elegant and painfully accurate in its portrayal of youthful sincerity, Atlan presents the delicate balance of intellect and innocence that typify what it means to be 17—full of life without having yet experienced it. Inspired by the 1903 German novella of the same name, the film also takes its title from literature and paints parallels with the art it examines in the characters themselves.