Early 1980s. Big ideas collide with big personalities, and a grand building meets a grand city. Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen, entirely unknown in France at the time, wins the Grande Arche competition initiated by the ambitious president François Mitterrand, to create a building aligned in perspective with the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. An ascetic and an outsider, always faithful to his craft and artistic vision, von Spreckelsen has previously designed several modernist churches in Denmark. The Grande Arche is his magnum opus and a “dedication to humanity”. Soon he moves to Paris with his wife Liv to wrestle with bureaucracy, the bitterness of the art of construction, cultural and linguistic differences, political tides. He tries to find answers to how far reality allows compromise, and whether, as the officials say, paper will indeed tolerate anything.

Architecture, just like film, is not just about the vision of an individual, but also about a collective dimension, and this piece by Demoustier is a reminder of that – a feature film rich in nuanced biographical and fictional detail, screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. Portrayed by Danish actor Claes Bang (The Square (2017)), von Spreckelsen is a post-war Brand – an artist brimming with ideals, up against technical, material and ideological commotions. Yet, contrary to the stereotypical image of spatial creators, he is no martyr or a victim of circumstance. Alongside him, cast in memorable roles imbued with human nuance, are Canadian directorial prodigy Xavier Dolan, Danish actress Sidse Babett Knudsen (the cult series Borgen (2010–2022)) and crème de la crème of French film. Notably, Demoustier has no formal film education – he has said that, having spent years filming buildings and interviewing directors, he developed an interest in architecture as an aesthetic, social and anthropological phenomenon. Here it unfolds within the colour and spirit of the 1980s – a utopian, construction-site-like Paris being built anew.