Dreaming of escaping from the mountain-top orphanage that once housed her for the majority of her turbulent adolescence, young teenager Jeanne spontaneously flees from her remote abode to a neighbouring township. Hiding from authorities, she seeks refuge at a movie studio. When she awakes from her slumber, she meets Cristina (played by Academy Award-Winner Marion Cotillard) in costume as The Snow Queen. Befriending the erratic movie-star, Jeanne begins to form an unconventional friendship with the cast and crew behind the Hans Christian Andersen production. As the shoot progresses, Jeanne learns uncomfortable truths about her newfound icon. Comforted by the manufactured ideals of stardom, Jeanne’s periphery begins to unravel amidst the pandemonium of the production. 

In Lucile Hadžihalilović’s cryptic coming-of-age tale, her film brilliantly confronts our obsessive ideals of celebrity worship. Through the meta-textual parallels between Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved fairytale and Jeanne’s revelations, Hadžihalilović beautifully subverts coming-of-age expectations with her unconventional storytelling. The Ice Tower moves at an appropriately glacial pace, delicately thawing its humanity amidst the ice-cold atmosphere. Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, The Ice Tower infuses melodrama into its metatextual commentary, all while deconstructing the myth of movie-making in the process. Featuring a surprising cameo appearance from French extremity iconoclast Gaspar Noé, The Ice Tower is a chilly coming-of-age melodrama about why you should never meet your heroes. - David Cuevas