Mother's Instinct

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Belgium | 2018 | 97 minutes | Olivier Masset-Depasse

September 29, 2019

French Cinema Now

In this Hitchcockian thriller, when a sudden tragedy uproots the lives of two women and their families, they begin to question the relationships they once held so dear.

Best-pal neighbors and moms Céline and Alice (Veerie Baetens, The Broken Circle Breakdown) see their friendship take a darker turn when a devastating accident hits one of their households in this delightfully twisty period thriller that combines the tense thematic perversities of Alfred Hitchcock with an eye-popping sense of color and decor that recalls the Technicolor best of Douglas Sirk or Pedro Almodóvar. Skillfully uncovering the fault lines of 1950s suburban niceties, Belgian director Olivier Masset-Depasse finds the sinister side of maternal devotion as Céline and Alice move from martini glasses and cubed cheese to knives and chloroform.

  • Original Language Title: Duelles
  • Director: Olivier Masset-Depasse
  • Principal Cast: Veerle Baetens, Anne Coesens, Medhi Nebbou, Arieh Worthalter
  • Country: Belgium, France
  • Year: 2018
  • Running Time: 97 minutes
  • Producer: Jacques-Henri Bronckart, Olivier Bronckart
  • Screenplay: Olivier Masset-Depasse and Giordano Gederlini, with the collaboration of François Verjans, based on the novel Derrière la haine by Barbara Abel, published by Éditions Fleuve Noir
  • Cinematographers: Hichame Alouie
  • Language: French
  • Has Subtitles: Yes