MFDB

Storyline

Juliette is released after having spent fifteen years in prison. She has not had any contact with her family during those fifteen years because they refused to have anything to do with her. Her younger sister, Léa, decides to take her in. She lives in Nancy with her husband Luc and two adopted daughters. Juliette’s long imprisonment and the difference in age mean that the two women are more or less strangers. Nonetheless, when the social worker approached Léa about Juliette, she immediately agreed to let her sister come and live with her. Juliette is withdrawn and cold at first, preferring to spend most of her time alone. But Léa does her best to make her stay as pleasant as possible. The new situation makes her husband Luc feel uneasy, but the two adopted daughters are delighted about their new aunt. Theirs is a large house, and the family often have guests staying with them. Michel, Léa’s charming colleague, and Samir and Kaïsha, a couple who have emigrated, all help Juliette return to a normal way of life, while Léa discovers just how much she has missed the sister about whom she feels so terribly guilty. Gradually, the two women succeed in rebuilding the trust that time has destroyed as they learn to conquer the secrets and things left unsaid that so brutally tore them apart. Philippe Claudel: “This is a film about the strength of women; about their ability to shine, to reinvent themselves and come alive again. It is a story about secrets and about being caged in. About the way in which we are all caged in.”

Festivals & Academy awards and others

Berlin International Film Festival 2008
Competition

César 2009
Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Elsa Zylberstein) / Best Debut Film