20/05/2023 - CANNES 2023: Iris Kaltenbäck helms a gripping feature debut, depicting a young woman weakened by a lack of love and the solitude of the city, whose life slowly turns upside down

"The days had all ended up seeming the same. The people too, like familiar strangers." In big cities, we know the difficulties inherent in entering into deep and meaningful communication with other people and forming emotional bonds, as well as the intense solitude that this can generate, with every possible negative psychological consequence you could imagine. Certain downward spirals can even boggle the mind, and it’s such a spiral – that of the ordinary veering into the extraordinary – that Iris Kaltenbäck chose as the subject matter of her feature debut, The Rapture [+see also:
trailer
interview: Iris Kaltenbäck
film profile], screened in competition in the 62nd Critics’ Week at the 76th Cannes Film Festival. This film, which is at once horrible, simple and moving, is pieced together by the director like a jigsaw puzzle, soon revealing a dramatic event on the horizon.

“I didn’t want to let her down.”
“Since when is asking for help letting someone down?"
Lydia (Hafsia Herzi), a midwife who is usually so professional and so passionate about her profession, is shaken, and her surprised colleague puts it down to fatigue. But that’s not the case; it’s a form of inner anguish that’s already well and truly embedded within her that’s coming to the surface, because Lydia has just delivered the baby of her best friend, Salomé (Nina Meurisse), while taking excessive risks to save the baby’s life – and fortunately, the child survived. Why? We have to go back a few months in time to understand that, with the combination of an unexpected break-up for Lydia (who was cheated on after three years of cohabitation) and Salomé’s revelation that she is pregnant. Since then, Lydia, who has no family, has got into the habit of no longer going home between shifts, wandering the city, giving no sign of life. This feeling of melancholy is offset by her unwavering commitment and her gentle nature at work, as she harbours an unspoken regret that she has to take better care of the mothers than the babies. During this period, she has a chance encounter with Milos (Alexis Manenti), a single bus driver with whom she had a one-night stand, but who did not wish to carry on seeing her, despite Lydia’s insistence. And that day, at the hospital, as Lydia is taking Salomé’s baby for a walk, while the mother is having a particularly bad time, Milos appears, having come to visit his sick father. This marks the beginning of a huge lie and a dangerous chain of events…

Much like the first name of the new-born child, Esmée, which means "beloved", The Rapture holds up a disturbing yet edifying mirror to the agony of those feelings that go unanswered. Without ever judging, the movie bears witness to and retraces the various stages of a downward spiral where there is a fine line between, on the one hand, the manipulation of loved ones and a breach of trust, and on the other, the despair born of indifference and the lack of attention from others. This all unfolds in the unnamed pressure cooker of a capital city where the sheer brutality of poverty and solitude can easily become overwhelming. It’s a kind of psychological ultrasound which Iris Kaltenbäck performs with some slick narrative chops, offering some fantastic roles to her two leads, especially Hafsia Herzi.

The Rapture was produced by Marianne Productions and MACT Productions, and co-produced by JPG Films and BNP Paribas Pictures. It is being sold overseas by Be for Films.

(Translated from French)