In 2013, Vanessa Springora recounts how she found herself under the influence of a famous writer. In 1986, she was 13; him, almost 50. The victim of a triple predation: sexual, literary, and psychic, there's more beyond her individual story. She questions the excesses of an era, and the complacency of an environment blinded by talent and celebrity.
Acting
Kim Higelin's restrained performance—old eyes in a child's body.
Direction
Filho refuses exploitation; every frame respects Springora's control.
Writing
The screenplay weaponizes Matzneff's own prose against him.
Director
Vanessa Filho
Kim Higelin
Vanessa Springora (jeune)
Jean-Paul Rouve
Gabriel Matzneff
Laetitia Casta
La mère de Vanessa
Élodie Bouchez
Vanessa Springora (adulte)
Jean Chevalier
Youri
Lolita Chammah
La meilleure amie de la mère de Vanessa
David Clavel
Michel
Agathe Dronne
Christiane (diner 1985)
Christophe Grégoire
Bernard (diner 1985)
Irène Ismaïloff
Concierge
Anne Loiret
La professeure de latin
Lila-Rose Gilberti
Camille
Tanguy Mercier
Julien
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Matzneff's 1977 open letter defending pedophilia was signed by Sartre, Beauvoir, and Foucault—French intellectuals literally petitioned to lower age of consent.
The real Matzneff fled to Italy after Springora's 2020 book; this film helped criminalize statute of limitations on child rape in France.
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