L’événement

Winner of the Golden Lion for best film at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, Audrey Diwan’s tense almost-thriller is set in 1963 at and around the university in Angoulême, central France. Anne (the riveting Anamaria Vartolomei) is stunned to find out that she’s pregnant. Determined to terminate her pregnancy so she can continue with her studies, she risks, at the very least, a prison sentence, and, possibly, even death if she actually manages to secure a shady backstreet abortion. Aided by Vartolomei’s committed performance, Diwan’s excellent adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel vaults her to the forefront of French filmmaking. ‘A blunt-force yet also measured drama propelled by a performance of astonishing emotional transparency from Anamaria Vartolomei, this is a slice of clear-eyed French social realism that will be meaningful to anyone who cares about personal freedoms… The sensitive subject matter is illuminated by treatment that’s pithy and direct, often quite graphic and laced with precise details that put you very much in the environment of the time.’—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter