Screening Dates
  • March 22, 2019 6:30
  • March 23, 2019 8:10
  • March 24, 2019 6:30
  • March 28, 2019 8:10
Vancouver Premiere

“Seductive … Ravishing … Francen’s debut is painterly through and through, with quietly authoritative performances by an almost exclusively female cast.”

Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

Debuting feature filmmaker Marine Francen’s alluring French historical drama won the prestigious New Directors competition—earning one of cinema’s most lucrative cash prizes, 50,000 Euros—at Spain’s San Sebastián festival. Its women-without-men drama—described as ​“The Beguiled meets Black Narcissus” (Hollywood Reporter)—is set in the 1850s, in the aftermath of Napoleon III’s seizure of power. The close-knit women of an isolated farming village have toiled for years in the absence of any adult males; their menfolk were all arrested in the political troubles. Wives miss husbands; young singles despair of finding mates. The women vow that, should a man ever appear, they will ​“share” him. The arrival of a handsome stranger threatens the bonds of their sisterhood. The film’s luscious visuals, framed in the 4:3 Academy aspect ratio, were inspired by painting of the period—especially the Realist pictures of Jean-François Millet (The Sower, The Gleaners).

“Moving, sensual … A finely etched miniature of quietly cumulative emotional impact.”

Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter

“A provocative, fable-like tale that rewrites its historical moment from a female perspective.”

Film Society of Lincoln Center
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