A devoted young woman becomes ensnared in a web of sexuality and betrayal in Jean-Pascal Hattu’s consistently unpredictable and finely wrought character study. A vividly realistic psychosexual drama, the film’s sharp emotional honesty heralds a distinct new voice from a promising young director. Hattu soon reveals that Maite’s husband Vincent is in prison for an unspecified crime, and that she has promised to wait for him and attend to his laundry (if not his conjugal needs) during his incarceration. On one of her weekly visits, Maite meets Jean, an oddly inquisitive and boldly flirtatious prison warden, and soon the two commence a joyless affair. Seemingly smitten with Maite, Jean, in a gesture of kindness to his lover, eases up on her husband behind bars; the two become pals and even engage in some homoerotic shower talk. —Robert O’Shaughnessy
Acting
Valérie Donzelli's restrained devastation carries every frame.
Direction
Hattu's debut shows brutal confidence in negative space.
Director
Jean-Pascal Hattu
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hattu shot in an actual functioning prison; the tension between actors and real inmates was reportedly palpable.
The film's French title '7 ans' refers to the sentence, but Maïté's own imprisonment—by loyalty, by routine, by desire—becomes the true subject.
US
