Renaissance

Renaissance (2006) is Christian Volckman's French animated noir thriller set in Paris, 2054 — watch it online on iFILM. The city has been rebuilt into a surveillance grid, and the Avalon Corporation sits at its centre, selling youth, beauty and longevity to whoever can pay.

When a young scientist named Ilona goes missing, detective Karas picks up her trail. The investigation pulls him through corporate espionage and genetic research programs that reach further back than anyone admits — and the secret at the end has a price attached. Every lead points to Avalon, and Avalon points nowhere.

What makes the film stick is the visual approach: every frame is rendered in pure black and white, no grey, no colour — the whole city looks like a woodcut come to life. Volckman made this aesthetic choice deliberately provocative, at a time when animation was moving toward photorealism. For fans of Sin City's graphic-novel look applied to science fiction, this delivers something genuinely different. Stream Renaissance (2006) online on iFILM.