Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Lucile Hadžihalilović is a French filmmaker, screenwriter, editor, and producer, born on May 7, 1961, in Lyon, France. Since the early 1990s, she has developed a distinctive body of work that occupies a unique place within contemporary European auteur cinema. Her films are characterized by their formal rigor, sparse narratives, and a persistent exploration of childhood, transformation, and enclosed worlds.
Early Life and Education
Born to a Bosnian father and a French mother, Lucile Hadžihalilović spent much of her childhood in Morocco, where she was exposed early on to cinema. Regular visits to local movie theaters played a significant role in shaping her visual sensitivity and her fascination with images and atmospheres.
Upon returning to France, she initially studied art history before enrolling at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC), now known as La Fémis, the national French film school. During her studies, she directed her graduation film, La Première Mort de Nono (1987), which already revealed a focus on childhood and subjective perception.
Early Career and Collaborations
In the early 1990s, Hadžihalilović co-founded the production company Les Cinémas de la zone with filmmaker Gaspar Noé. The company was conceived as an independent structure aimed at producing films outside mainstream production systems. This collaboration played a key role in her early professional development.
During this period, she worked as a film editor on several of Noé’s projects, notably Carne (1991) and I Stand Alone (Seul contre tous, 1998), and contributed to screenwriting and production work, while simultaneously developing her own films.
Breakthrough and Recognition
Her work as a director gained recognition with Mimi (1996), a medium-length film selected for the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival. Centered on a young girl’s perspective, the film established many of the thematic and stylistic elements that would define her later work: ellipsis, restraint, and a focus on sensory experience rather than explicit storytelling.
This film marked her emergence as a distinctive voice in French cinema.
Feature Films
Hadžihalilović directed her first feature film, Innocence, in 2004. Loosely inspired by Frank Wedekind’s novella Mine-Haha, or On the Bodily Education of Young Girls, the film is set in an isolated boarding school where young girls undergo a mysterious and highly ritualized education. Widely acclaimed for its visual style and atmosphere, Innocence established her international reputation.
She returned to feature filmmaking with Evolution (2015), which depicts a strange, isolated community composed of adult women and young boys living on a remote island. Blending elements of science fiction and fantasy, the film further explores themes of bodily transformation, control, and isolation.
In 2021, she directed Earwig, her first English-language feature film, adapted from a novel by Brian Catling. Set in an austere and claustrophobic environment, the film focuses on the unsettling relationship between a young girl and her guardian, continuing her exploration of silence, physicality, and psychological unease.
In 2025, Hadžihalilović presented The Ice Tower (La Tour de glace), a film loosely inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen. The film was screened in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution, marking a major milestone in her career.
Short Films and Other Works
In addition to her feature films, Hadžihalilović has directed several short and medium-length works, including Good Boys Use Condoms (1998), Nectar (2014), and De Natura (2018). These projects often adopt experimental or essayistic forms and extend her visual and thematic research into nature, the body, and metamorphosis.
Style and Themes
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s cinema is marked by minimal dialogue, carefully composed imagery, and a strong emphasis on sound design and physical presence. Her films favor suggestion over explanation, inviting viewers to engage actively with ambiguity.
Recurring themes in her work include childhood, initiation, confinement, transformation, and power structures. Her distinct visual language and refusal of conventional narrative frameworks have positioned her as a singular figure within contemporary French and European cinema.
Engagement and Recognition
Hadžihalilović is a member of the 50/50 collective, which advocates for gender equality and diversity within the film industry. Her work has been widely shown at major international film festivals and has been the subject of retrospectives at leading cinematheques.
Though her filmography is relatively small, her body of work is widely regarded as influential and emblematic of a cinema that prioritizes artistic freedom, formal precision, and sensory experience.
PAGE WIKIPEDIA LUCILE HADZIHALILOVIC : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucile_Had%C5%BEihalilovi%C4%87