Shortly after World War I, veteran Raphaël (Raphaël Thiery) returns home from the frontlines to find himself a widower, and father to an infant daughter. Raised by her father in rural Normandy, the child Juliette (Juliette Jouan) grows into a lonely young woman who dreams of greater possibilities. She seeks refuge in the nearby woods, where she meets a witch who promises scarlet sails will one day take her away from her village.
Reckoning with her future and swept away by a rakish young pilot (Louis Garrel) who literally falls from the sky, Juliette never stops believing in the witch's prophecy. Tracing Juliette's journey throughout the 20 years of great invention between the world wars, Scarlet delicately weaves together music and fantasy, history and folklore, realist drama and ethereal romance, to craft a timeless story of a young woman's emancipation.
"The movie’s sense of reality-based romance, wherein daydream believers make their own magic, is nicely captured in the opening quotation: “You can do so-called miracles with your own hands,” reads the epigraph, attributed to adventure novelist Alexander Grin, whose “Scarlet Sails” loosely inspired the script." - Variety
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