Climax

In the mid-1990s, a group of around twenty young urban dancers gathers for three days of rehearsal in a disused school deep in a forest, preparing for a tour abroad. On their final evening they celebrate together around a large bowl of sangria. Someone has spiked the drink with a powerful drug, and as it takes hold the mood turns from celebration to confusion and then to violence. Convinced they have been dosed but unable to work out by whom or why, the dancers are trapped together until morning, when the authorities arrive and the full extent of what happened becomes clear.

Gaspar Noé wrote and directed the film, which sits between Love and Lux Æterna in the run of features he has directed, following Carne, I Stand Alone, Irreversible, Destricted and Enter the Void. Sofia Boutella leads the cast as Selva, alongside Romain Guillermic, Souheila Yacoub, Kiddy Smile, Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull and Giselle Palmer, among twenty-four credited performers. Vincent Maraval, Brahim Chioua and Richard Grandpierre produced.

Made for about 3 million USD, the film returned roughly 2 million USD worldwide, less than its cost. It holds a rating of 6.9 out of 10 on IMDb from around 89,000 votes and 7 out of 10 on TMDB from some 2,405 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 7 out of 10 from 185 reviews, putting professional and audience assessments close together.