Part of 2019 Film Festival
Mothers’ Instinct
Description
Best-pal neighbors and moms Céline and Alice see their friendship take a darker turn when a devastating accident hits one of their households in this delightfully twisty period thriller that combines the tense thematic perversities of Alfred Hitchcock and an eye-popping sense of color and decor that recalls the Technicolor best of Douglas Sirk or Pedro Almodóvar. Skillfully uncovering the fault lines of 1950s suburban niceties, Belgian director Masset-Depasse finds the sinister side of maternal devotion as Céline and Alice move from martini glasses and cubed cheese to knives and chloroform.
“The film’s sharp eye for the dysfunctional dynamics of frenemy-ship is a dirty pleasure all its own, as these perfect housewives serve each other passive aggression like petits fours and protestations of affection like they’re macarons iced with arsenic.” – Jessica Kiang, Variety
Olivier Masset-Depasse burst on the scene in 2000 with Chambre froide, a short that won numerous film festival awards, including the Torino Film Festival’s Best International Short Film Award. He made his feature debut in 2006 with Cages, followed by Illegal (2010), for which he won the SACD Prize at the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight.
Film Details
Year 2018
Language French
Runtime 97
Country Belgium/France
Director Olivier Masset-Depasse
Producer Jacques Henri-Bronckart, Olivier Bronckart
Writer Olivier Masset-Depasse, Giordano Gederlini, François Verjans
Editor Damien Keyeux
Cinematographer Hichame Alouie
Music Frédéric Vercheval
Cast Veerle Baetens, Anne Coesens, Mehdi Nebbou
Print Source Indie Salesfestival@indiesales.euindiesales.eu
Original Language Title Duelles
