Opening Night AFFR 2025 – sold out

In a bold break with tradition, AFFR 2025 opens with Stéphane Demoustier’s elegant fiction film The Great Archb (La Grande Arche). This quintessential architecture story centers on a prestigious competition with an unexpected winner, political intrigue, construction challenges, and an architect who can seem an idealist to some and an egotist to others.

It is 1982. French President François Mitterrand announces a competition for a new monument at La Défense, as part of his megalomaniac Grands Projets, eight monuments to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the French Republic. Unexpectedly, the until then unknown Danish architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen played by Claes Bang (The Square) wins. Together with his wife and business partner Liv, Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen), he moves to Paris to realise the project. Due to a difficult collaboration with architect Paul Andreu, his ‘cube’, as he lovingly calls the project, gets into increasing trouble. The idealistic Dane becomes trapped in a web of political intrigue. Director Stéphane Demoustier’s elegant film The Great Arch (La Grande Arche), based on Laurence Cossé’s book of the same name, tells the true story of Von Spreckelsen without too much melodrama and with attention to detail.

“The Great Arch is simultaneously a gripping drama and a loving ode to the complexities of architecture.” Cristina Ampatzidou, Head of Programming AFFR

The screening is followed by our traditional festive after-party in the foyer of Theatre Rotterdam!