What does queer signify in twenty-first-century French film? How are lesbian, gay, and trans* characters represented on screen?

Queer cinema in contemporary France responds to these questions through an examination of the work of five directors: Jacques Martineau, Olivier Ducastel, Alain Guiraudie, Sébastien Lifshitz, and Céline Sciamma. Taking in award-winning films such as Stranger by the Lake and Portrait of a Lady on Fire and lesser-known productions such as Family Tree and Open Bodies, the book traces the development of queerness across the filmmakers' careers. The films depict a wide range of scenarios - from gay sex at a nudist beach and lesbian love in a high school swimming pool to gay road trips and transgender journeys through time. They offer a fascinating exploration of the issues surrounding queerness in this century, while gesturing toward an optimistic future for LGBTQ characters and the world in which they live, love, and desire.

Whether white, beur, or black, whether lesbian, gay, trans*, or queer, the characters in these films open up oppressive notions of hetero- and cisnormativity to something new, something unexpected, something oriented toward the future.