Provocative French filmmaker Catherine Breillat offers an idiosyncratic variation on a classic fairy tale with this fantasy. Young Princess Anastasia (Carla Besnainou) runs afoul of an ill-tempered witch who puts a curse on her, but while the witch initially condemns the princess to death, three fairies (Dounia Sichov, Leslie Lipkins, and Camille Chalons) are able to change the spell, so instead the girl will fall into a deep sleep at the age of six and wake up 100 years later, when she will appear to be 16. After Anastasia falls asleep, she drifts into a netherworld where she's befriended by a friendly woman (Anne-Lise Kedves) who is raising her teenage son, Peter (K?rian Mayan), on her own after the death of her husband. However, Peter runs away with the evil Snow Queen (Romane Portail), and Anastasia sets out to find him. Along the way, Anastasia grows into a teenager (now played by Julia Artamonov), is beguiled by a beautiful gypsy (Rhizlaine El Cohen), and crosses paths with the ill-tempered Johan (David Chausse), who has an unusual connection with the lost Peter. La Belle Endormie (aka Sleeping Beauty) received its North American premiere at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival.
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