A Radiant Girl 2021
Distributed by Film Movement
Produced by Emilien Bignon, Christine De Jekel, Olivier Delbosc and Pauline Duhault
Directed by Sandrine Kiberlain
Streaming, 98 mins
Middle School - General Adult
Ethnic Cleansing; Jewish Studies; Theater
Date Entered: 07/31/2023
Reviewed by Ray Boucher, Lecturer of Theater and Film (SUNY Buffalo State, SUNY Geneseo, GCC, NCCC) and actorSet in Paris in 1942, A Radiant Girl centers on Irene (played with great charm by Rebecca Marder), a young Jewish woman with aspirations to attend Drama School. Her upcoming auditions and rehearsals set a framework for director Sandrine Kiberlain to subtly introduce the ominous undertone of Nazi occupation of France and the subsequent isolation, arrest, and deportation of thousands of Jews.
At heart, A Radiant Girl is a family drama--Irene lives with her older brother (Anthony Bajon), tough Grandmother (Françoise Widhoff), and loving but conflicted father (André Marcon), all played naturalistically and with believable pathos. Though the brunt of the conflict falls squarely on her father's shoulders, it is Irene's coming of age that the film focuses on. She falls in love and embraces drama with passion, showers her father and brother with equal parts love and derision, and worries her father endlessly. She seems to have only an inkling of the darkness that surrounds her, which makes the quiet, but devastating ending moment all the more poignant.
Awards:Best Screenplay, Torino Film Festival; Holden Award for Best Script, Torino Film Festival
Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.