Cannes 2026: Made of Flesh and Fuel
2026 Cannes Film Festival
When crafting a queer story in film, there are two paths a filmmaker can take, each with its own unique merits and purposes. There are queer stories that are purposefully generic in motivations and experience, breaking down the invisible wall that sometimes exists when discussing queer lives, showing how queer stories are not a mutation separated from straight stories, but rather normal human behavior. The other option is to make something more uniquely molded by the queer experience, whether that be a celebration of queer joy like John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus, a complex discussion of queer identity like John Greyson's Urinal, or a showcase of queer suffering like Pierre le Gall's Made of Flesh and Fuel. Screening as part of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Made of Flesh and Fuel follows a lonely French truck driver named Étienn (Alexis Manenti). Étienn's life revolves around the road. His friendships are on the road, his understanding of time is based on the road, and the men he desires to have sex with are on the road. Étienn has nothing outside of the road, and the life of solitude that the job offers. However, when Étienn meets another driver named Bartosz (Julian Świeżewski), he begins to feel new butterflies in his stomach and a desire for something more sustainable.
The queer experience can be an experience of profound loneliness. There is a reason why so many queer stories put to film are filled with perspectives of outcasts filled with desire in their isolation. While these stories can be found in the recent queer canon, including Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women and Carmen Emmi's Plainclothes, they can be traced back to the dawn of cinema with pieces like Jean Cocteau's The Blood of a Poet and James Whale's Frankenstein. Étienn's isolation is a strenuous one. Étienn is not only isolated from romantic love, but from any substantial attachment one normally has with the world around them. Étienn's life is one of constant travel and deadlines, constantly moving with only small breaks and moments of joy with others who are also passing through. There is never a time in his life when he can feel complacent or relaxed. Manenti brings this to life wonderfully, capturing the small inflictions of the character as he gets hit with a twinge of sadness or loneliness.
However, Manenti's ability is further realized when the character begins to evolve. What happens to him is not a result of a choice or conscious decision; Étienn's desire instead expands naturally as he finally feels seen by Bartosz. Even if their physical meetings are brief, and sometimes cut even more tragically short by the nature of the job, Bartosz keeps up with Étienn, and Étienn feels love blossom in a form far more substantial than he has before. It is at this point that Étienn is finally given a choice: does he listen to his heart, or return to the safety of the life he has carved for himself? In queer life, this choice is one that happens organically for every individual. To be openly queer is to make a choice to live authentically, to risk safety and relationships to be true to one's heart, and accept whatever consequences are to follow. For some, this choice is easy, while for others, the choice is impossible. The film presents a version of this that is sure to have many queer audiences considering their own hesitations and excuses for why they cannot live the life they desire, serving as both an empowering message of hope while also being a cold splash of reality for just how toxic it can be to hold desire in.
As a piece of queer representation, Made of Flesh and Fuel is refreshing. Queer representation in film has never been more prominent, yet few features feel as open as this. The film isn't afraid to be sexually open, embracing the physical intimacy and desire that is authentic to the queer experience. The film avoids nearly every cliche of queer identity on screen, showing what feels like a real relationship blooming with real characters that are well-defined and lived in. There is also a wonderful message buried about how technology has opened the door for queer connection.
Made of Flesh and Fuel is easily one of the best films of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. There is both a heartbreaking reality shown in the film of a man who has cut himself off from the world, and a heartwarming look at how there is always still time to reconnect and find someone to hold you when you need it the most.
