In 1953, a sensitive French boy finds out from a neighbor that his family's Jewish. François Grimbert becomes a physician, and gradually peels the layers of his buried family history which resulted in his difficult upbringing, raised as Catholic by his "Aryan" appearing parents. His athletic father labored to stamp out stereotypical Jewish characteristics he perceived in his son, to keep the family's many secrets, as most relatives fought in World War II, and later were hauled off to labor and death camps by the Gestapo.
Acting
Patrick Bruel's athletic repression is devastating physical acting.
Direction
Claude Miller's final film—patient, painful, deeply personal.
Writing
Adapting Philippe Grimbert's autofiction with haunting restraint.
Director
Claude Miller
Patrick Bruel
Maxime Nathan Grinberg / Grimbert
Cécile de France
Tania Stirn / Grimbert
Ludivine Sagnier
Hannah Golda Stirn / Grinberg
Julie Depardieu
Louise
Mathieu Amalric
François Grimbert at 37 years old
Nathalie Boutefeu
Esther
Yves Verhoeven
Guillaume
Yves Jacques
Le commandant Beraud
Robert Plagnol
Robert Stirn
Laura Presgurvic
L'amie de Louise
Claire Romain
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Philippe Grimbert was a psychoanalyst who only learned his true family history at 37—Mathieu Amalric plays him at exactly that age.
Miller's film completes an unofficial trilogy on Jewish identity and occupied France, following 'La meilleure façon de marcher' and 'Garde à vue'—his entire career was obsessed with hidden selves.
FR
