Which releases are worth seeing? Three voices from cinema on 1 July 2026

Paris – 04.07.2026: The Wednesday cinema releases of July 1 bring three very different works to French screens. What they have in common is the desire to tell personal stories through striking forms: In Waves as poetic animation, Our Story – Chronicles of Cairo as a historically grounded family chronicle, and André Is an Idiot as an intimate, self-reflective documentary.

In Waves by Phuong Mai Nguyen adapts a graphic novel about love, loss, and the resonance of memories. The film relies on delicate, richly textured animation that uses light, grain, and color transitions to make layers of memory visible. The voices, including Lyna Khoudri, give the characters a subtle urgency; the music maintains a tone between melancholy and consolation. Critics praise the coherence of the form and its emotional resonance, while noting that the measured pace requires patience. For viewers who appreciate visual subtlety and atmospheric narrative logic, it is a recommended choice.

Our Story – Chronicles of Cairo by A. B. Shawky unfolds over nearly three decades, showing how private biographies and Egyptian historical currents intertwine. With Amir El-Masry and Valerie Pachner in leading roles, the film relies on densely constructed scenes that reflect political upheavals—from everyday life to social tensions—through family conflicts. The result is narratively rich, with careful art direction and sweeping tableaux. At times, the abundance of motifs seems overwhelming, but those looking for grand, classic narrative cinema will find reliable points of reference here.

André Is an Idiot by Anthony Benna decisively opts for closeness: an observational camera, personal interviews, moments of irony alongside the gravity of illness and grief. The protagonist André Ricciardi appears as an ambivalent figure whose awkwardness can be as comic as it is painful. The film avoids ready-made answers and relies on listening, which makes its frankness effective—even if it clearly remains on the arthouse side.

At the box office, initial indications point to different reaches: In Waves appeals to festival audiences and critics, Our Story reaches fans of historical drama on a larger scale, while André Is an Idiot finds a more intimate resonance through its authenticity. For the weekend choice: if you prefer poetic visual worlds, In Waves is a good choice; if you enjoy epic generational narratives, choose Our Story; if you are looking for documentary immediacy, you will find it with André Is an Idiot. As different as these approaches may be, they show how much the summer program affirms the diversity of cinema as a space of experience.