The short film Deux personnes échangeant de la salive, directed by Natalie Musteata and Alexandra Sigh, offers a chilling take on intimacy: a society where kissing is punishable by death. The film attracted attention on the festival circuit and is now available to stream on Canal+. It has also been selected for major awards, competing at the César ceremony on 26 February and the Oscar nominations scheduled for 15 March.
This piece pairs a concise viewing recommendation with a broader cultural brief: recent trends in lesbian and trans literature, notable new releases, translations, and a handful of critical reads that shaped conversations this season. The goal is to give readers both a film to watch immediately and a reading list to explore in the weeks ahead.
Why this short film matters
Deux personnes échangeant de la salive uses a tight premise to examine surveillance, state control, and the policing of queer affection. The filmmakers imagine a legal regime that criminalizes public and private tenderness, turning an intimate act into a capital offense. The result is a concentrated dystopia that forces viewers to think about where intolerance and authoritarianism converge.
Form and themes
Visually economical and narratively focused, the short leans on performance and atmosphere rather than exposition. The central image — two people sharing saliva — becomes an allegory: a small gesture, reclassified as a threat. The film’s urgent mood explains its presence in awards conversations and its resonance with contemporary debates about bodily autonomy and state power.
Where to watch and why to prioritize it
If you want a compact but powerful viewing experience, stream the short on Canal+. Its award nominations—the César shortlist on 26 February and the Oscars ballot on 15 March—have generated renewed interest, making this an accessible moment to see why critics and juries responded to it. Watching the film before these ceremonies adds context to the discussions you’ll encounter in cultural coverage.
Selected literary highlights from the lesbian and trans rentrée
Alongside cinematic moments, the recent literary season in France brought a wave of novels, comics, poetry, and translations centred on lesbian and trans experiences. A recurring critique from readers and reviewers is the striking lack of diversity on many lists; several commentators have noted the season felt overwhelmingly white. At the same time, new translations and indie presses are pushing boundaries and expanding the canon.
Translations and editors to watch
The independent house Hystérique & AssociéEs is releasing two translations of Pat Parker that many are anticipating: Un Soupçon de crachat on 6 March and La Révolution n’est ni propre ni jolie ni rapide on 7 May. These editions are being promoted as essential recoveries; if you follow contemporary lesbian letters, they are worth pre-ordering or reserving at your local indie bookstore.
Comics, biography, and fiction to note
Several graphic works and debut novels have gained attention. One comic depicts five feminist militants who capture a police officer during a protest and use the episode to sketch a radical, cathartic fantasy about dismantling the policing apparatus. The tone mixes satire and rage, using grotesque depictions of white cishet men against flamboyant, forceful women to explore political desire and revenge.
Another acclaimed graphic biography revisits the life of Annemarie Schwarzenbach, tracing her travels, queer relationships, and resistance to the rise of fascism. Rendered in stark black‑and‑white artwork, the book alternates between cabaret scenes and the shadow of political violence.
On the prose front, reactions have been mixed. A recent release that compiles execution protocols from the United States drew sharp criticism from some readers who questioned its literary value and political usefulness. Conversely, a debut near‑future novel follows five women tasked with preserving human memory inside a disused orbital base; the book blends technical speculation with intimate flashbacks and eschews conventional romance plotlines in favor of collective survival and archive ethics.
Practical pointers and further listening
For those who want a quick map: stream the Musteata–Sigh short on Canal+, look up the Hystérique & AssociéEs catalogue for the March and May translations, and check independent bookstores for the new graphic narratives about militant feminist collectives and historical queer figures. Podcast listeners may enjoy recent episodes of Book Club and other radio shows that have been programming interviews and discussions around queer literature and political history.
Whether you start with the compact shock of a short film or with a slow read through newly translated passages, this moment in culture offers both a provocation and several invitations: to remember what intimacy can mean under repression, to expand reading lists beyond the familiar, and to support the small presses and creators bringing these stories into circulation.