Two girls on the threshold of the city. They are freezing, constantly smoking and poring over brasserie menus. Having left Brussels behind, they are ready to conquer Paris. Repeating the words “I’m hungry, I’m cold” – which becomes a game between them – they try to find out what the city has to offer two girls in leather jackets without a penny. This is how awkwardly survival blends with dreams.

Called a musical number in which no one sings, Akerman’s fiction short is a subtle satire on the mythology of “the city of big opportunities”. As she continues exploring modern women’s survival – most famously known from Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), which Sight&Sound called the greatest film of all time – the Belgian director here employs a more ironic form. The two protagonists – played by Maria de Medeiros of Pulp Fiction (1994) and Akerman’s favourite Pascale Salkin – use themselves as weapons against poverty and see physical intimacy as just as meaningless as their successor in Fat Girl (2001) by Breillat more than a decade later.