Somewhere in France during the Middle Ages. Béatrice is impatient to see her father return from English captivity. She doesn't expect however that the father whom she loves from distance will be the most hateful person who will submit her and her family to abuse and humiliation.
Acting
Julie Delpy's debut—feral, luminous, already a star at 17.
Direction
Tavernier's immersive medieval world without romanticism.
Cinematography
Bruno de Keyzer's candlelit interiors—beauty that suffocates.
Director
Bertrand Tavernier
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Tavernier discovered Delpy at 14 and waited three years to cast her, certain she could carry the film's emotional weight.
The film deliberately inverts the 'noble returning crusader' trope; François embodies the historical reality that medieval warfare brutalized men who then brutalized their households.
FR
