L'inconnu de la Grande Arche

The Great Arch

Year: 2025
Country: France, Denmark
Director: Stéphane Demoustier
Cast: Claes Bang, Michel Fau, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Xavier Dolan, Swann Arlaud
Genre: drama, biography, history
Runtime: 106 min.
Age: 18+
The story of Otto von Spreckelsen, a real-life architecture teacher from Copenhagen, who surprised the world when he won an open-call competition launched by French president François Mitterrand.

1983. French President François Mitterrand decides to launch an international architectural competition for the flagship project of his mandate: the Great Arch of La Défense, aligned with the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe.
Against all odds, Otto von Spreckelsen, a Danish architect, wins the competition.

Overnight, this 53-year-old man, unknown in France, arrives in Paris where he is propelled at the helm of this pharaonic project.

While the architect intends to build the Great Arch exactly as he envisioned, his ideas quickly clash with realistic constraints and the vicissitudes of politics.

Awards & Festivals:

Cannes Film Festival – Nominee Un Certain Regard Award
Lumiere Awards – Best Screenplay
César Awards, Nominee – Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor
Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR) – participation
Gijón International Film Festival – participation
Jerusalem Film Festival – participation


  • Moscow

    08.08

    8 August, Saturday

  • Saint Petersburg

    07.08

    7 August, Friday

    • 19:00 Avrora

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

      Tickets

  • Kaliningrad

    08.08 | 15.08

    8 August, Saturday

    15 August, Saturday

    • 15:00 Cinema Park Europa

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

  • Krasnoyarsk

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

  • Nizhny Novgorod

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

  • Novokuznetsk

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

    • 15:00 Formula Kino IMAX

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

  • Novosibirsk

    10.08

    10 August, Monday

    • 19:00 Pobeda

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

      Tickets

  • Omsk

    16.08

    16 August, Sunday

    • 15:00 Slava

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

      Tickets

  • Perm

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

    • 15:00 Cinema Park Semya

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

  • Saratov

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

  • Sochi

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

    • 15:00 Kino MoreMall

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

  • Surgut

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

  • Tyumen

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

    • 15:00 Cinema Park Goodwin

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

  • Ufa

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

  • Volgograd

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

  • Voronezh

    15.08

    15 August, Saturday

    • 15:00 Galereya Chizhova

      Language: French, English, Danish, Italian, russian subtitles

  • Yekaterinburg

    07.08

    7 August, Friday

LAF: Summer Architecture Festival 2026