Les Intranquilles

Actors Damien Bonnard and Leïla Bekhti are magnificent in Joachim Lafosse’s (‘Our Children’, ‘After Love’) deeply personal and disturbing tale about the destructive effects of bipolar disorder on one family. Damien (Bonnard) is a rising painter married to furniture restorer Leïla (Bekhti). Theirs is a loving relationship—until, that is, Damien goes off his meds, something he does repeatedly. Forced to be a mother to both her son (Gabriel Merz Chammah) and her husband eventually threatens the marriage… Lafosse’s father, a photographer, suffered from bipolar disorder, and the director’s own experiences give his film a profound grounding in truth. ‘[An] earnest drama that avoids clichés and pulls no punches… Bonnard’s performance, though utterly committed and credibly disturbing, is not hammy. Bekhti is very good as someone relentlessly ground down by anxiety and resentment at being nursemaid to a parasite that might yet kill her and her child… This is a sombre, well-acted drama that searches its own wound with increasing acuity and anguish.’—Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian