Jacques Audiard swaps the crime stories he is known for and turns his camera on four young people drifting between apartments, jobs and beds in one high-rise corner of the French capital. Paris, 13th District is a 2021 comedy-drama about love in the age of the swipe, shot in the tower blocks of the arrondissement that gives it its name.
What is Paris, 13th District about?
Émilie's life collides with Camille's, and what starts as convenience between them quickly becomes something messier. Camille, meanwhile, is drawn to Nora, a newcomer trying to find her footing in the city, and Nora's own path eventually crosses Amber's, closing the film's loose circle of four. Audiard treats these four as a shifting formation rather than a set of couples: people who are friends one week, lovers the next and often both at the same time, talking frankly about desire while dodging the harder conversation about what they actually want from one another. The setting is as much a character as any of them, with the concrete towers, night buses and cramped kitchens of the 13th giving the romance a texture that is anything but postcard Paris.
About the cast
Noémie Merlant, Makita Samba and Lucie Zhang form the core of the cast, with Jehnny Beth, Geneviève Doang, Pol White, Line Phé and Annabelle Milot in supporting parts. The film relies on long, talky two-handers, and much of its charm comes from watching the performers hold the screen with little more than conversation and body language.
Context & significance
Audiard is among the best-known French directors of his generation, and Paris, 13th District marked a shift in scale for him: an urban romance running one hundred and one minutes, lighter in tone than his earlier work and more interested in intimacy than in violence. The story moves in an episodic rhythm, with each strand feeling like a chapter that hands off to the next. Its mix of comedy, drama and romance lands it in the tradition of the French relationship film, but the phones, dating apps and precarious jobs place it firmly in the present.
Watching Paris, 13th District on Ktime
K-Time carries Paris, 13th District with a Persian dub and Persian subtitles, so you can watch it dubbed or keep the original French audio with Farsi text. A K-Time account login is required to stream; reading this page is free. The whole K-Time experience, from browsing to playback controls, runs in Farsi, designed for Iranians living abroad.