“This is not a period piece, but a mirror,” states Marie-Elsa Sgualdo in the catalogue of the 2025 Venice Film Festival, where her feature debut Silent Rebellion (À bras-le-corps) bowed in the Spotlight section. It’s that kind of topicality that could help the film travel beyond French-language territories, further highlighting Sgualdo’s position as part of the newer directorial voices in European cinema. Her short films have premiered in Cannes and Locarno.
The story takes place in a rural community in Switzerland, right in the middle of World War II. While the country is officially neutral on the military front, the local population has no major qualms about delivering Jews to the surrounding German troops, while hypocritically agreeing with the pastor’s calls for empathy and kindness. It is in this context that the young Emma (Lila Gueneau) is up for an acknowledgement for her pious behavior.
Things change dramatically when a seemingly harmless interaction with one Louis (Cyril Metzger, previously seen in Golden Lion winner Happening) turns into sexual assault, her hands desperately clinging to the grass as she hopes for the ordeal to be over as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for her, the rape leaves a mark in the form of pregnancy, leading to the semi-urgent decision to strike up a relationship with her friend Paul (the Belgian former child actor Thomas Doret, who starred in the Dardennes’ The Kid with a Bike).
She thinks she will eventually grow to love him, but things get more complicated than expected, as her new husband opposes the idea of her doing any work at all, including the chores she used to carry out for the pastor. Alone within her own household, and with few allies (her own mother is established early on as a negative presence in the community), Emma decides to carve out her own path, no matter the cost.
Gueneau’s performance, measured in her handling of pained silence and understated dignity, is the revelatory emotional centerpiece of the film, the main building block from which Sgualdo derives a handsomely mounted project set in the past but very much speaking to the present. It’s a powerful piece of acting that more than makes up for a lack of big swings on the directorial side, as everything is carefully calibrated to get the message across and tell a story that, per the director, feels very relevant today as women’s rights are getting trampled on even in countries that have supposedly embraced progressive values.
Much like its protagonist, Silent Rebellion presents a somewhat timid or modest countenance, before embarking on a steadily paced journey that is sometimes cinematically conventional but always filled with sincerity and passion, primarily through the strong acting ensemble which revolves heavily and solidly around the younger cast, although Claire Denis regular Grégoire Colin manages to get room to shine among the adults. Quiet demeanors abound, but as a calling card for Sgualdo’s career in feature filmmaking, it knows when to get just about loud enough.
Director: Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
Screenwriters: Nadine Lamari, Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
Cast: Lila Gueneau, Grégoire Colin, Thomas Doret, Aurélia Petit, Sandrine Blancke, Sasha Gravat Harsch, Tamara Semelet, Cyril Metzger, Lievke Bartel, Aurelien Patouillard, Etienne Fague
Producers: Elena Tatti, Nicolas Wittwer, Julie Esparbes, Emmanuelle Latourrette, Fabrice Préel-Cléach
Cinematography: Benoît Dervaux
Production design: Sara B. Weingart
Costume design: Geneviève Maulini
Music: Nicolas Rabaeus
Sound: Xavier Lavorel, Henry Sims
Production companies: Box Productions, Hélicotronic, Offshore, RTS Radio Télévision Suisse
World sales: Salaud Morisset
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Venezia Spotlight)
In French
96 minutes
