The thorny subject of child abuse is depicted delicately and with great attention to detail in this affecting debut feature from young Belgian filmmaker Emanuelle Nicot. The film is part of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week programme and features an impressive turn by newcomer Zelda Samson. Les Miserables and The Eddy stars Alexis Manenti also stars alongside Marie Denarnaud and Jean-Louis Coulloc’h.
Twelve year old Dalva (Samson) lives alone with her father Jaques. One evening, the police storm into their home and arrest her father. Confused about the series of events that took place, a terrified Dalva demands to be reunited with the father she calls by his first name, but is instead given a physical exam and taken into care. Later the teenager befriends her feisty new roommate Samia who reluctantly agrees to teach her naive new friend about things she should have known by now.
Meanwhile Dalva...
Twelve year old Dalva (Samson) lives alone with her father Jaques. One evening, the police storm into their home and arrest her father. Confused about the series of events that took place, a terrified Dalva demands to be reunited with the father she calls by his first name, but is instead given a physical exam and taken into care. Later the teenager befriends her feisty new roommate Samia who reluctantly agrees to teach her naive new friend about things she should have known by now.
Meanwhile Dalva...
- 4/28/2023
- by Linda Marric
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Emmanuelle Nicot on Zelda Samson, who plays the title role in Love According To Dalva: 'She was impressively mature. She also had confidence, strength, something brash and, above all, an incredibly filmic face' Photo: © Caroline Guimbal Helicotronc Tripode Productions Emmanuelle Nicot: 'The films I saw then as a teenager made such an impression on me that they answered a lot of questions I had but never dared ask and I felt less alone' Photo: Marie Rouge/UniFrance When she was 18 Love According To Dalva director Emmanuelle Nicot was taken to a film festival near to her home town of Sedan on the River Meuse in the Ardennes close to the border of France and Belgium. The theme of the festival, Les Enfant du Cinéma in Charleville-Mézières, was films whose main characters were children.
Watching such films as Catherine Breillat’s Fat Girl (À Ma Soeur), dealing with the relationship between two sisters,...
Watching such films as Catherine Breillat’s Fat Girl (À Ma Soeur), dealing with the relationship between two sisters,...
- 4/26/2023
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
When her father is arrested, 12-year-old Dalva takes his side in shocking drama rooted in careful research
Made with painstaking care and sensitivity, this debut feature from Belgian film-maker Emmanuelle Nicot is about a child victim of grooming and rape who takes the side of her abuser; this is a 12-year-old girl called Dalva (Zelda Samson), whose father is arrested at the start. It’s an intense film about trauma and its devastating consequences. Nicot ignores the perpetrator to focus on the victim, a decision that makes this film just about bearable; I can’t think of another movie I was so reluctant to watch, but after it started I couldn’t look away.
Love According to Dalva opens with a police raid. “Jacques!” screams Dalva – not “Dad!” – as her father is bundled out of the house. Dalva is driven to a foster home for teenagers where she is furious,...
Made with painstaking care and sensitivity, this debut feature from Belgian film-maker Emmanuelle Nicot is about a child victim of grooming and rape who takes the side of her abuser; this is a 12-year-old girl called Dalva (Zelda Samson), whose father is arrested at the start. It’s an intense film about trauma and its devastating consequences. Nicot ignores the perpetrator to focus on the victim, a decision that makes this film just about bearable; I can’t think of another movie I was so reluctant to watch, but after it started I couldn’t look away.
Love According to Dalva opens with a police raid. “Jacques!” screams Dalva – not “Dad!” – as her father is bundled out of the house. Dalva is driven to a foster home for teenagers where she is furious,...
- 4/24/2023
- by Cath Clarke
- The Guardian - Film News
Audrey Diwan, director of the 2021 Venice Golden Lion winner “Happening,” has been named jury president of the 62nd annual Critics Week.
The jury members include Portuguese director of photography Rui Poças; German actor, choreographer and dancer Franz Rogowski (“A Hidden Life”); Indian journalist, curator and Berlinale programming advisor Meenakshi Shedde; and Sundance programming director Kim Yutani.
The Critics Week sidebar runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, and focuses on first and second films. Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania (“The Man who Sold his Skin”) served as last year’s jury president.
Diwan, a former journalist, made her debut with “Losing It” in 2019. Two years later, the filmmaker took home the Venice Film Festival’s top prize for her sophomore feature, the searing 2021 abortion drama “Happening,” which was snapped up for distribution by IFC Films. She became only the second woman (after 2020’s “Nomadland” helmer Chloe Zhao) to win the Golden Lion since Agnès Varda,...
The jury members include Portuguese director of photography Rui Poças; German actor, choreographer and dancer Franz Rogowski (“A Hidden Life”); Indian journalist, curator and Berlinale programming advisor Meenakshi Shedde; and Sundance programming director Kim Yutani.
The Critics Week sidebar runs parallel to the Cannes Film Festival, and focuses on first and second films. Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania (“The Man who Sold his Skin”) served as last year’s jury president.
Diwan, a former journalist, made her debut with “Losing It” in 2019. Two years later, the filmmaker took home the Venice Film Festival’s top prize for her sophomore feature, the searing 2021 abortion drama “Happening,” which was snapped up for distribution by IFC Films. She became only the second woman (after 2020’s “Nomadland” helmer Chloe Zhao) to win the Golden Lion since Agnès Varda,...
- 4/12/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
"I'm scared... of being alone." 606 Distribution has revealed an official trailer for a lively French drama titled Love According to Dalva, marking the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Emmanuelle Nicot. This originally premiered in the Critics Week sidebar section at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival last year, and also Camerimage in Poland, and just won the Audience Award at the 2023 Rotterdam Film Festival. The film stars newcomer Zelda Samson as the young woman at the center of it all. Dalva is 12, but she dresses and lives like a woman. One day, she's taken away from her house. Dumbfounded at first, she later meets Jayden, a social worker, and Samia, a teen with a temper. A new life seems to start for Dalva. The film also stars Alexis Manenti, Fanta Guirassi, Marie Denarnaud, & Jean-Louis Coulloc'h. There's still no US release set, but it'll open this April in the UK - which...
- 2/24/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
This balanced piece of key art from design house Silenzio taps all the photography basics. Rule of thirds? Check. Bokeh? Check. Implied motion with low shutter speed? Check. In the digital-layer decades of over-processed, and cluttered, movie posters, the French, like the South Koreans, have taken a step back and focused on solid photography principles to deliver compelling key art. Even the typography elements of this poster have a pyramid-like flow that does not interrupt or over-shadow the rule of thirds here; the credit block is present, but tiny, and parallels with the wave of Zelda Samson's swinging arm. The warm glow of the middle section...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/10/2023
- Screen Anarchy
The film won four prizes in the Cannes sidebar last May.
Emmanuelle Nicot’s Cannes Critics’ Week winner Love According To Dalva has secured UK-Ireland distribution through Pat Kelman’s 606 Distribution.
606 is planning a Spring 2023 theatrical release for the film, which is a debut feature about a 12-year-old girl taken into care after being removed from her abusive father. mk2 Films handles sales.
It picked up four prizes in the Cannes sidebar last may: the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for lead actress Zelda Samson; the Fipresci prize, Le Rail D’Or du Long Metrage and Le Prix des Visiteurs du Soir.
Emmanuelle Nicot’s Cannes Critics’ Week winner Love According To Dalva has secured UK-Ireland distribution through Pat Kelman’s 606 Distribution.
606 is planning a Spring 2023 theatrical release for the film, which is a debut feature about a 12-year-old girl taken into care after being removed from her abusive father. mk2 Films handles sales.
It picked up four prizes in the Cannes sidebar last may: the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star award for lead actress Zelda Samson; the Fipresci prize, Le Rail D’Or du Long Metrage and Le Prix des Visiteurs du Soir.
- 1/5/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Palestinian director Firas Khoury’s debut feature Alam has triumphed at the 44th Cairo International Film Festival, winning its Golden Pyramid Award for Best Film, best actor for Mahmoud Bakri and the Audience Award.
The coming-of-age tale, which world premiered in Toronto, explores the reality of Palestinian teenagers growing up within Israeli borders.
Bakri stars as a high-school student who gets involved in an operation to replace the Israeli flag flying from his school with a Palestinian one, as Israeli celebrates Independence Day and Palestinians commemorate Nakba, or the catastrophe.
The picture, which is sold internationally by MPM Premium, was acquired by Film Movement for North America earlier this year.
The Silver Pyramid special jury award for best director went to Belgium’s Emmanuelle Nicot for Dalva, a sensitive portrait of a young girl as she rebuilds her trust in life after being sexually abused.
Big screen debutant Zelda Samson...
The coming-of-age tale, which world premiered in Toronto, explores the reality of Palestinian teenagers growing up within Israeli borders.
Bakri stars as a high-school student who gets involved in an operation to replace the Israeli flag flying from his school with a Palestinian one, as Israeli celebrates Independence Day and Palestinians commemorate Nakba, or the catastrophe.
The picture, which is sold internationally by MPM Premium, was acquired by Film Movement for North America earlier this year.
The Silver Pyramid special jury award for best director went to Belgium’s Emmanuelle Nicot for Dalva, a sensitive portrait of a young girl as she rebuilds her trust in life after being sexually abused.
Big screen debutant Zelda Samson...
- 11/23/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Palestinian filmmaker Firas Khoury’s fiery coming-of-age drama “Alam” (The Flag) took home the Golden Pyramid at the Cairo Intl. Film Festival, which wrapped with a glitzy award ceremony in the Egyptian capital on Tuesday night.
Khoury’s politically charged debut, which world premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, struck a chord with both the international jury, headed by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase, and moviegoers in Cairo, who also handed “Alam” the audience award. At a rousing Middle East premiere on Nov. 18, moviegoers burst into applause several times during the screening.
Khoury, who addressed the audience at Cairo’s Opera House with a pre-recorded message, was unable to attend the festival. The director, an Israeli citizen traveling on a Palestinian passport, was not granted a visa by Egyptian authorities.
“Alam” follows a Palestinian-Israeli teen who undergoes a political awakening sparked by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class,...
Khoury’s politically charged debut, which world premiered at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival, struck a chord with both the international jury, headed by Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase, and moviegoers in Cairo, who also handed “Alam” the audience award. At a rousing Middle East premiere on Nov. 18, moviegoers burst into applause several times during the screening.
Khoury, who addressed the audience at Cairo’s Opera House with a pre-recorded message, was unable to attend the festival. The director, an Israeli citizen traveling on a Palestinian passport, was not granted a visa by Egyptian authorities.
“Alam” follows a Palestinian-Israeli teen who undergoes a political awakening sparked by a pretty, outspoken girl from his high school class,...
- 11/23/2022
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The title character of writer-director Emmanuelle Nicot’s feature debut “Love According to Dalva” is not like other girls her age. The 12-year-old dresses like a “lady,” as one of the girls at the youth shelter she’s been shipped to points out — by which she means like a woman much older. There are lace blouses and prim skirts, there are pearl earrings and a dowdy updo. Dalva (Zelda Samson) looks not so much like someone wanting to look older as she does like someone who doesn’t know how to act her age. Nicot tracks the way Dalva will find her way back to being and feeling like the girl she is.
When we first meet Dalva, it’s not immediately clear why she’s so dissimilar from girls her age. This is because she’s introduced to us as she’s kicking and screaming as the police are...
When we first meet Dalva, it’s not immediately clear why she’s so dissimilar from girls her age. This is because she’s introduced to us as she’s kicking and screaming as the police are...
- 11/23/2022
- by Manuel Betancourt
- Variety Film + TV
19B wins three awards including Fipresci prize.
Firas Khoury’s Alam, a coming-of-age drama about Palestinians growing up in Israel, has won 2022 Cairo International Film Festival’s Golden Pyramid for best film in the international competition.
‘Alam’: Cairo Review
Alam also took the audience award while Mahmoud Bakri shared the best actor prize with Maher Elkheir for Ali Cheri’s The Dam. The best actress award went to Zelda Samson for Love according To Dalva by Emmanuelle Nicot, who earned the Silver Pyramid special jury award for best director.
The Bronze Pyramid Award for best first/second work went...
Firas Khoury’s Alam, a coming-of-age drama about Palestinians growing up in Israel, has won 2022 Cairo International Film Festival’s Golden Pyramid for best film in the international competition.
‘Alam’: Cairo Review
Alam also took the audience award while Mahmoud Bakri shared the best actor prize with Maher Elkheir for Ali Cheri’s The Dam. The best actress award went to Zelda Samson for Love according To Dalva by Emmanuelle Nicot, who earned the Silver Pyramid special jury award for best director.
The Bronze Pyramid Award for best first/second work went...
- 11/22/2022
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Films from China, Chile, Palestine and India picked up prizes.
Qui Jiongjiong’s A New Old Play and Maha Haj’s Mediterranean Fever picked up the top prizes at the Firebird Awards at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff).
A New Old Play won the Firebird Award for best film in the Chinese-language Young Cinema Competition. The story follows a family of Sichuan Opera artists living through a tumultuous era and the prize rounds out a year-long tour of festivals that began with Locarno last August and took in Busan, Tallinn Black Night, Rotterdam and Goteborg among others. The...
Qui Jiongjiong’s A New Old Play and Maha Haj’s Mediterranean Fever picked up the top prizes at the Firebird Awards at the Hong Kong International Film Festival (Hkiff).
A New Old Play won the Firebird Award for best film in the Chinese-language Young Cinema Competition. The story follows a family of Sichuan Opera artists living through a tumultuous era and the prize rounds out a year-long tour of festivals that began with Locarno last August and took in Busan, Tallinn Black Night, Rotterdam and Goteborg among others. The...
- 8/31/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The delayed 46th edition of the Hong Kong International Film Festival wrapped Wednesday with the award of 13 prizes for its young filmmaker, documentary and shorts competitions.
Hailed by the jury as “one of this year’s most distinguished films both creatively and artistically,” Qiu Jiongjiong’s “A New Old Play” was named best film for the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language). “A New Old Play” is a tale of a family of Sichuan Opera artists living through a tumultuous era. It also collected the Fipresci Prize, with the jury commending the film for “its masterful approach and inventive visual style.”
In the global category, Palestinian director Maha Haj’s “Mediterranean Fever” was chosen as the Firebird Award winner for being “an all-rounded gem that is at once a thriller, social comedy, and odd couple bromance.”
In the Chinese-language category, Hong Kong’s Mak Pui-tung won the best actor award for “The Sparring Partner.
Hailed by the jury as “one of this year’s most distinguished films both creatively and artistically,” Qiu Jiongjiong’s “A New Old Play” was named best film for the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language). “A New Old Play” is a tale of a family of Sichuan Opera artists living through a tumultuous era. It also collected the Fipresci Prize, with the jury commending the film for “its masterful approach and inventive visual style.”
In the global category, Palestinian director Maha Haj’s “Mediterranean Fever” was chosen as the Firebird Award winner for being “an all-rounded gem that is at once a thriller, social comedy, and odd couple bromance.”
In the Chinese-language category, Hong Kong’s Mak Pui-tung won the best actor award for “The Sparring Partner.
- 8/31/2022
- by Patrick Frater
- Variety Film + TV
Triangle of SadnessCOMPETITIONPalme d’Or: Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund) (Read our review)Grand Prix ex aequo: Close (Lukas Dhont)Grand Prix ex aequo: Stars at Noon (Claire Denis) (Read our review)Jury Prize ex aequo: The Eight Mountains (Charlotte Vandermeersch, Felix Van Groeningen)Jury Prize ex aequo: Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski) (Read our review)75th Anniversary Prize: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Tori and Lokita) (Read our review)Best Director: Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave) (Read our review)Best Actor: Song Kang-ho (Broker)Best Actress: Zahra Amir-Ebrahimi (Holy Spider)Best Screenplay: Tarik Saleh (Boy From Heaven)The Worst OnesUN Certain REGARDGrand Prize: The Worst Ones (Lise Akoka, Romane Gueret)Ensemble Prize: Jury Prize: Joyland (Saim Sadiq)Jury Special Mention: Best Director: Alexandru Belc (Metronome)Best Performance: Vicky Krieps (Corsage) and Adam Bessa (Harka) (Read our review)Screenplay: Mediterranean Fever (Maha Haj)Coup de Coeur Award: Rodeo (Lola Quivoron)The MountainDIRECTORS' FORTNIGHTEuropa...
- 5/29/2022
- MUBI
Just hours before this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or prize announcement, the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) has awarded “Leila’s Brothers” its International Critics’ Prize for best film inCannes main competition.
The title is pointed. Leila has four brothers, but it is Leila, played by Iranian star Taraneh Alidoosti (“The Salesman), who dominates proceedings, battling to save her family from ruin, to tragic consequences.
“Dense with overlapping dialogue, suffocating social situations and shifting point-of-view, Roustaee’s style is a stark departure from the straightforward, focused Iranian movies that have found their way into the world so far, whether the fable-like tales of Majidi or the intimate dramas of Farhadi, whose relative simplicity makes them uniquely suited to international consumption,” Variety’s Peter Debruge wrote in a review of the first film Cannes from Roustace, best known for 2019’s cop-thriller “Just 6.5.”
The Fipresci jury, led by Egypt’s Ahmed Shawky,...
The title is pointed. Leila has four brothers, but it is Leila, played by Iranian star Taraneh Alidoosti (“The Salesman), who dominates proceedings, battling to save her family from ruin, to tragic consequences.
“Dense with overlapping dialogue, suffocating social situations and shifting point-of-view, Roustaee’s style is a stark departure from the straightforward, focused Iranian movies that have found their way into the world so far, whether the fable-like tales of Majidi or the intimate dramas of Farhadi, whose relative simplicity makes them uniquely suited to international consumption,” Variety’s Peter Debruge wrote in a review of the first film Cannes from Roustace, best known for 2019’s cop-thriller “Just 6.5.”
The Fipresci jury, led by Egypt’s Ahmed Shawky,...
- 5/28/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Andres Ramirez Pulido’s “La Jauria” won the Grand Prize at Critics’ Week, the Cannes Film Festival’s sidebar dedicated to first and second features. The Colombian film also won the Sacd prize.
The feature debut follows Eliú, a country boy who is wrongly accused of a crime and incarcerated in an experimental rehabilitation center for tough boys in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest.
Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” which stars “Normal People” actor Paul Mescal, won the French Touch Prize of the Jury. The bittersweet drama revolves around a father and daughter who spend a summer holiday in a Turkish resort.
Emmanuelle Nicot’s “Love According To Dalva,” meanwhile, won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for Zelda Samson. “Love According to Dalva” is a poignant drama about a 12-year-old girl growing up in foster care, alongside social workers and other children.
The Gan Foundation Award for Distribution went to Urban Distribution,...
The feature debut follows Eliú, a country boy who is wrongly accused of a crime and incarcerated in an experimental rehabilitation center for tough boys in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest.
Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” which stars “Normal People” actor Paul Mescal, won the French Touch Prize of the Jury. The bittersweet drama revolves around a father and daughter who spend a summer holiday in a Turkish resort.
Emmanuelle Nicot’s “Love According To Dalva,” meanwhile, won the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for Zelda Samson. “Love According to Dalva” is a poignant drama about a 12-year-old girl growing up in foster care, alongside social workers and other children.
The Gan Foundation Award for Distribution went to Urban Distribution,...
- 5/25/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
UK director Charlotte Well’s buzzed-about debut Aftersun also features among the prize-winners.
Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s jungle-set, coming-of-age drama The Pack (La Jauria) has scooped the top €10,000 grand prix of the 61st edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.
The film revolves around a boy who is sent to an experimental juvenile correction centre in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he commits a crime.
The Colombia-France co-production is Pulido’s first feature after a number of well-travelled shorts including Damiana which premiered in Competition in Cannes in 2017 and El Edén which played in the Berlinale in 2018.
Tunisian...
Colombian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s jungle-set, coming-of-age drama The Pack (La Jauria) has scooped the top €10,000 grand prix of the 61st edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.
The film revolves around a boy who is sent to an experimental juvenile correction centre in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he commits a crime.
The Colombia-France co-production is Pulido’s first feature after a number of well-travelled shorts including Damiana which premiered in Competition in Cannes in 2017 and El Edén which played in the Berlinale in 2018.
Tunisian...
- 5/25/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
UK director Charlotte Well’s buzzed-about debut Aftersun also features among the prize-winners.
Columbian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s jungle-set, coming-of-age drama The Pack (La Jauria) has scooped the top €10,000 grand prix of the 61st edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.
The film revolves around a boy who is sent to an experimental juvenile correction centre in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he commits a crime.
The Colombia-France co-production is Pulido’s first feature after a number of well-travelled shorts including Damiana which premiered in Competition in Cannes in 2017 and El Edén which played in the Berlinale in 2018.
Tunisian...
Columbian director Andrés Ramírez Pulido’s jungle-set, coming-of-age drama The Pack (La Jauria) has scooped the top €10,000 grand prix of the 61st edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.
The film revolves around a boy who is sent to an experimental juvenile correction centre in the heart of the Colombian jungle after he commits a crime.
The Colombia-France co-production is Pulido’s first feature after a number of well-travelled shorts including Damiana which premiered in Competition in Cannes in 2017 and El Edén which played in the Berlinale in 2018.
Tunisian...
- 5/25/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
As the Cannes Film Festival rolls towards its conclusion on Saturday night, sidebar Critics’ Week doled out its awards this evening with the Grand Prize going to Andres Ramirez Pulido’s La Jauria. Critics’ Week is devoted to first and second features, and this is Pulido’s debut meaning the film is also eligible for the Camera d’Or which will be announced on Saturday during the fest’s main closing ceremony.
La Jauria took two gongs tonight in Critics’ Week, also scoring the Sacd Prize. The story centers on Eliú, a country boy, who is incarcerated́ in an experimental minors’ center in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest, for a crime he committed with his friend El Mono. Every day, the teenagers perform strenuous manual labor and intense group therapy. One day, El Mono is transferred to the same center and brings with him a past that Eliú is trying to escape.
La Jauria took two gongs tonight in Critics’ Week, also scoring the Sacd Prize. The story centers on Eliú, a country boy, who is incarcerated́ in an experimental minors’ center in the heart of the Colombian tropical forest, for a crime he committed with his friend El Mono. Every day, the teenagers perform strenuous manual labor and intense group therapy. One day, El Mono is transferred to the same center and brings with him a past that Eliú is trying to escape.
- 5/25/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
One need only look to France’s literary heroes, politicians, and films to see the country’s obsession with young girls — and its penchant for protecting pedophiles. In 2020, the French writer Gabriel Matzneff was outed as the country’s Jeffrey Epstein, after writing about his sexual relations with minors for decades with little consequence. A year later, prominent French intellectual and politician Olivier Duhamel admitted to sexually abusing his stepson following publication of a memoir by his stepdaughter Camille Kouchner. As the last generation to grow up with such laissez-faire attitudes about child abuse comes of age as artists, they are leading the charge on shifting mores as the #MeToo reckoning finally comes for France.
That maturation is apparent in the first feature film from writer/director Emmanuelle Nicot, “Love According to Dalva,” an audacious and unsettling portrait of a young girl dealing with the immediate after-effects of sexual abuse...
That maturation is apparent in the first feature film from writer/director Emmanuelle Nicot, “Love According to Dalva,” an audacious and unsettling portrait of a young girl dealing with the immediate after-effects of sexual abuse...
- 5/21/2022
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Child grooming is a tough subject to tackle, but Belgian director Emmanuelle Nicot takes a sensitive approach in her Critics Week feature Love According To Dalva. The key here is perspective: almost everything is shown from the point of view of a victim who has been taken into care, and who doesn’t realize she has been abused. Watching the truth slowly dawn upon her gives this film real tension, while also providing the possibility of recovery and enlightenment.
Dalva (Zelda Samson) is a 12-year-old girl who dresses like a grown woman, wears make up and does not expect to be treated like a child. She’s horrified when she’s taken from her father and into a temporary facility for teenagers with problems. She’s even more dismayed when she learns that her father has been arrested. Slowly, it transpires that Dalva believes that the “love” he has shown...
Dalva (Zelda Samson) is a 12-year-old girl who dresses like a grown woman, wears make up and does not expect to be treated like a child. She’s horrified when she’s taken from her father and into a temporary facility for teenagers with problems. She’s even more dismayed when she learns that her father has been arrested. Slowly, it transpires that Dalva believes that the “love” he has shown...
- 5/20/2022
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
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