Peppermint Soda

In September 1963, 13-year-old Anne Weber, Éléonore Klarwein, and her 15-year-old sister Frédérique Weber spend the summer with their newly divorced father along the coast, before returning to Paris to live with their mother for the new school year. The girls enroll in a strict all-girls school, the Lycée Jules-Ferry, where boundaries between childhood and adulthood begin to blur.

At school, the introverted Anne is an underachiever who is mocked by a teacher for a substandard drawing during art class. She feels the sting of not fitting in—especially when she frets over not being given stockings, a detail that underlines the social expectations of their world. There’s a quiet urgency in her longing to reach womanhood: she even pretends to have menstrual cramps, hoping to signal a change that hasn’t yet come. Along with her friends, she candidly discusses sex, revealing how little they actually know, yet how keenly they sense the mystery of growing up.

She also sneaks a look at the letters between Frédérique Weber and her boyfriend Marc, and falsely claims that Marc is her own boyfriend, turning private correspondence into a playful but revealing knot of gossip and identity.

Meanwhile, Frédérique begins to shed a simpler preoccupation with boys as she becomes more politically aware—drawn to discussions about the Algerian War and to her Jewish identity. This shift in focus strains a key friendship with Perrine, a wealthy classmate who represents a different social world. The evolving political climate of the era becomes a backdrop for personal change, and Frédérique’s new activism brings her into contact with Pascale, a classmate who is outspoken about the tensions surrounding protests. Pascale recounts a peaceful demonstration that ends in violence as far-right extremists clash with the police, a story that leaves a vivid impression on the class.

Another friend, Muriel, disappears from the scene for a time, sparking rumors about where she might have gone. When Muriel’s worried father finally appears, he makes an unsettling pass at Frédérique, a moment that adds to the complicated web of trust, boundaries, and growing independence that threads through the girls’ days. Muriel eventually returns briefly, revealing that she has dropped out and is living with a boyfriend on a farm.

As the school year unfolds, Frédérique also takes part in a school play. On opening night, her father attends, but he does not linger afterward to offer the encouragement she hopes for, a quiet reminder of the personal costs that can accompany stepping into the spotlight. After these events, the girls eventually return to their father’s seaside home for the summer, a place that reinforces the pull between two very different worlds—the structured routine of school life and the wider currents of adulthood they’re only just beginning to sense.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 09:30