72 hours before French bodybuilder Lea Pearl is due to take part in an international competition, she is staying with her severe trainer in a conference hotel attached to the tournament. All the rooms are occupied by highly trained athletes and their entourages. They hunger and thirst for eternal glory. Lea Pearl has been reduced to her body: she is no longer a woman, or a lover – let alone a mother. Until her ex-boyfriend unexpectedly turns up at the hotel, with their six-year-old son; a child she hasn’t seen for years.
In her debut feature, director Elsa Amiel shows a wondrous, navel-gazing world that brooks no distractions. Visually, she makes the best possible use of the exceptional, chiselled bodies and the dull, soullessly decorated conference rooms and anonymous hotel rooms that are all about presentation. But this psychological drama also shows moments of heart-breaking fragility between the child and the sportswoman who doesn’t want to – and can’t – be a mother.
Film details
- Countries of production
- France, Monaco, Switzerland
- Year
- 2018
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2019
- Length
- 80'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
