SYNOPSIS

Diane is a French journalist and mother struggling to raise her son with a neurological disorder that leads to violent outbursts. She travels a lot for her work, also to escape her grueling daily life. On New Year’s Eve, despite her husband’s anger and her sense of failure as a mother, Diane travels to Belarus to write an article on human rights. Near Minsk, she meets Marina, whose brothers have been sentenced to death. This simple interview becomes an intimate exchange between the two women, leading Diane to the very depths of her own guilt.

INTENTION

The encounter between Diane and Marina is that of two women consumed by guilt. How can I film the guilt I’ve already felt in my own intimacy as a mother? My son has ADHD, and I suffered from his impulsiveness as a child. Sometimes I was unable to react, to help him, to contain his anger.

These memories influence my dramaturgical and aesthetic choices. The camera’s anchor will be Diane’s character. I would like to show the intimacy of her struggle. I will give priority to close-ups of the woman’s face and body. Through framing and editing, I want to mark the distance she initially maintains from everything around her, a distance that shrinks as she becomes aware of the pain that consumes her.

The documentary dimension is also essential. Some exchanges between the two women are based on the actual words of Anna Kosteva, the sister of two young men sentenced to death in Belarus in 2020. Belarus is my father’s homeland, and it is also the only country in Europe that still enforces the death penalty. This context of extreme violence heightens the emotions of Diane and Marina, demanding a form of ultimate sincerity.