In the films of Claire Denis one often feels that all is well even as worlds collide and collapse or, conversely, that a serious challenge underlies the seemingly calm moments. One of French cinema’s most distinctive and humanist storytellers, her films capture the emotional and social effects of cross-cultural tensions and alienation. They depict her deep affection and solidarity with marginalised characters – immigrants, exiles, alienated individuals, sexual transgressives – and are at the same time a contemplative examination of ambivalent, sometimes undecipherable postcolonial identities. Following her outstanding début film CHOCOLAT, she has made films such as NÉNETTE ET BONI, TROUBLE EVERY DAY, VENDREDI SOIR, 35 Rhums and WHITE MATERIAL establishing a reputation as one of the only current French filmmakers who “has been able to reconcile the lyricism of French cinema with the impulse to capture the often harsh face of contemporary France”. Claire Denis, whose BEAU TRAVAIL will be screened in this year‘s “4 Decades of the Forum” programme, will talk about her non-conformative, highly individualistic style of making films and her profound interest in exploring the themes of belonging and otherness, the gravity and the gift of foreignness.