Peppermint Soda (1977)

PEPPERMINT SODA (1977) is a French coming-of-age film in which we follow two teenage sisters: 13-year-old Anne and her 15-year-old sister Frédérique, over the course of the year 1963–1964. The two sisters attend a girls’ school in France whilst experiencing a rapid succession of ‘firsts’ during a time of political unrest and social change. Gradually, Frédérique becomes politically active on the issue of the Algerian War and aware of her Jewish identity. 

With PEPPERMINT SODA, a symbolic title referring to a bitter French drink for adults that the girls nevertheless drink, director Diane Kurys won the Louis Delluc Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1977. PEPPERMINT SODA is July’s bittersweet Sunday Evening Classic.