Zef, twenty years old, is a simple-minded man who can only say one word: "love you". Always happy, loving everyone, he lives with his sister Sophie on a farm in the Lot. Attracted by the sad smile of Marie, he rapes her one evening without realizing the gravity of his act. Commited in a psychiatric asylum, Zef falls into a deep silence. Hugues, a doctor with avant-garde methods, is in charge of caring for Marie. He decides to confront her with Zef, convinced that her healing goes through a long reappropriation of life and love.
Acting
Annie Girardot elevates every scene she's in.
Direction
Sébastien's daytime-TV sensibility clashes with the dark material.
Director
Patrick Sébastien
Patrick Sébastien
Hugues Michel
Jean-François Balmer
Paul Gontier
Michel Duchaussoy
Louis
Myriam Boyer
Christine
Annie Girardot
Emma
Marie Denarnaud
Marie Gontier
Samuel Dupuy
Zef
Nathalie Roussel
Jeanne Michel
Jean-François Dérec
le surveillant à l'hôpital psychiatrique / ancien tireur d'élite
Olivia Brunaux
Sophie, la sœur de Zef
Pierre Mirat
Le maire de Martel
Étienne Draber
Un médecin
Jean Lescot
Gaëtan Durieux
Isabelle Tanakil
Anne Gontier
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Patrick Sébastien was primarily a TV host and comedian; this was his misguided 'serious' directorial statement.
The film embodies a particularly French 1990s tendency toward 'humanist' narratives that aestheticize rural poverty and excuse male violence.
FR
