13/11/2025 - Micha Wald returns with a suffocating huis clos set in the 16th century about a young, exiled woman, her servant and her troubling knight-errant who are abandoned on a desert island

Known for her feature films In the Arms of My Enemy [+see also:
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film profile], Belgian filmmaker Micha Wald is returning with a third feature film named A Survivor’s Tale, which was screened during the 26th edition of the Arras Film Festival, selected for the Perspectives of French Cinema section.

The Belgian filmmaker offers up an organic re-reading of the story of a very young French noblewoman called Marguerite de la Rocque (Salomé Dewaels), who’s taken on a colonial expedition to Canada in 1542 by an elderly uncle and guardian (Patrick Descamps) who intends to marry her. But once aboard the ship, he realises his betrothed is pregnant by another man and magnanimously decides to leave her on a deserted island rather than killing her. The crew remove her onto the Island of Demons in the company of her servant (Candice Bouchet), her unborn child’s putative father (Louis Peres), and a smattering of food and ammunition. Exposed to the elements and to desire, which quickly turns into a sense of ownership on the part of the person who’s taken advantage of Marguerite, the latter fights against her unwanted pregnancy, the hunger and the cold, and Thomas’ onslaughts. Damienne is the only one who clumsily tries to be a source of support and comfort for Marguerite, within the limits of her particular vision of the world, which is bounded by her blind faith, especially when the young woman wants to free herself of the pregnancy which is both holding her back and forcing her hand. Marguerite remains in this state of forced exile for more than two years, after which a ship takes her home to France where a witchcraft trial awaits her. It’s solely thanks to the intervention of Marguerite de Navarre – the sister of Francis I (and the writer of Heptameron, which covers the young woman’s story in one of its sections) that our young heroine escapes the death sentence.

A Survivor’s Tale is at once a biopic narrating the life-or-death struggle of a young woman who’s been left to the brutality of men but who tries to resist her fate; a survival story in the form of an adventure film set on a wind-battered desert island where nature is alternately hostile, nurturing and protective; a historical film exploring, along the way, the mysteries of the court of King Francis I, the fate reserved for young and not-so-young women, and matrimonial and family customs, and; a tale with feminist undertones about struggle, anger and resistance, not to mention sorority and, ultimately, emancipation. Played by Salomé Dewaels, Marguerite fully embodies the passion of youth and the determination of a force to be reckoned with. The young Belgian actress lends all her intensity to this historical character, offering up an utterly modern depiction.

A Survivor’s Tale was produced by Stenola Productions (Belgium) in co-production with KG Productions (France) and Czar Film & TV (Belgium). World sales are entrusted to Pulsar Content.

(Translated from French)