Diane, a student, is recruited by the DGSE, France’s external intelligence agency – while Pierre, a criminal, is recruited in prison by a terrorist organisation killing in the name of Islam. Both are mere munition to their respective recruiters/handlers. Two times, two parallel lives doomed to intersect. A sardonic, typically Philippe Haïm abstract meditation on the way all radicals are closer to each other than they would like to believe, as well as the treacherous nature of clandestine lives. A text at the end of the film states that the DGSE has been able (implicitly, due to all the duplicitous dealings shown here) to thwart more than a dozen terrorist attacks. That was 2008 – before Charlie Hebdo, the Black Friday of November 2015, Nice… which is to say that nowadays the upshot of the film reads in a different way: counter-terrorism is a losing game, despite the occasional wins.
Film details
Productieland
France
Jaar
2008
Festivaleditie
IFFR 2017
Lengte
100'
Medium/Formaat
35mm
Taal
French
Première status
None
Director
Philippe Haïm
Screenplay
Julien Sibony, Philippe Haïm
Cinematography
Jérôme Alméras
Editing
Sylvie Landra
Production design
Ambre Fernandez
Sound design
Frédéric Le Louet, Vincent Mauduit
Music
Alexandre Azaria
Principal cast
Gérard Lanvin, Vahina Giocante, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Simon Abkarian, Mehdi Nebbou, Rachida Brakni, Aurélien Wiik