They find themselves trapped in a terrifying affair and yearn for freedom
Line of Events
Three women in an apartment in Marseille get stuck in a heat wave. Temperatures jump in the south of France, the air boils in Marseille, people are advised to stay at home and enjoy each other’s company.
This picture is Noémie Merlant’s directorial debut and she does it with gusto
But Denise is fed up with the company of her abusive husband who is always hungry, so she stabs him with a shovel and then suffocates him on their balcony. This is how the story begins, but Denise is not the main character: the plot revolves around three younger women, Nicole, Ruby and Elise, who decide to hang out a little on Nicole' with the balcony that evening and will never stop.
She is not afraid to combine all the existing film genres into one: horror, love story, thriller, drama, comedy, etc
However, it seems that she is not interested in the genre, what is important to her is that her message should be very clear. She says, no, shouts, screams, screams: many women are raped, abused, humiliated, oppressed and victim-blamed every day by men, most of whom are their boyfriends, husbands or neighbors.
Well done Noémie!
Noémie doesn’t want them to get away with it, and neither do her grotesque characters, who will find their liberation, and they don’t care at what cost. A stunning, gritty, graphic and very confident debut.