Anna, a young teenager, comes home from her Catholic boarding school for the holidays and discovers her father has left. Her mother is devastated and confined in the company of the local priest, who is also a childhood friend. Anna clings to her beloved grandfather. She also grows close to Pierre, a free-spirited teenager who cares little about God. Anna is preparing for her confirmation, but her budding desire for Pierre shakes her faith. She longs to give herself over, body and soul... but doesn't know if it is to God, or something else?
Acting
Clara Augarde's trembling restraint — every glance is a crisis of faith.
Direction
Quillévéré's tactile close-ups make skin feel like sacred text.
Cinematography
Golden Breton light that somehow feels both holy and suffocating.
Director
Katell Quillévéré
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released in France as 'Un Poison Violent,' the title references both Arthur Rimbaud's poetry and the Catholic concept of desire as spiritual poison — Katell Quillévéré was only 29 and already dissecting institutions.
The confirmation dress becomes a visual motif of constraint — white as both virginity and burial shroud. Anna literally cannot breathe in it during her final choice.
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