16/35

They find themselves trapped in a terrifying relationship and long for freedom

Tale

Three women in an apartment in Marseille are trapped by a heatwave. Temperatures are skyrocketing in the south of France, the air is boiling in Marseille, people are advised to stay home and enjoy each other’s company.

This film is Noémie Merlant’s debut as a director and she’s doing it with great enthusiasm

However, Denise has had enough of her abusive husband, who is always hungry, so she stabs him with a shovel and then suffocates him to death on their balcony. That’s how the story begins, but Denise isn’t the protagonist: the plot revolves around three young women, Nicole, Ruby and Elise, who decide to have a little get-together on Nicole’s balcony that night and they won’t stop.

She’s not afraid to combine all the existing film genres into one: horror, romance, thriller, drama, comedy, etc

But she doesn’t seem to care about the genre, what interests her is making her message very clear. Say, no, scream, yell, scream: many women are raped, violated, humiliated, oppressed and blamed by men on a daily basis, most of whom are their boyfriends, husbands or neighbors.

Bravo Noémie!

Noémie doesn’t want them to get away with it, nor do her grotesque characters, who will find their liberation, and they don’t care at what cost. A surprising, disgusting, graphic and very self-confident debut.