LA DOULEUR / MEMORY OF PAIN

In Emmanuel Finkiel’s haunting adaptation of Marguerite Duras’s semi-autobiographical novel, The War: A Memoir, the famed author recounts an emotionally complex story of love, loss, and perseverance against a backdrop of wartime intrigue. It’s 1944 Nazi-occupied France, and Marguerite is an active Resistance member along with husband Robert Antelme and a band of fellow subversives. When Antelme is deported to Dachau by the Gestapo, she becomes friendly with French Nazi collaborator Rabier to learn of her husband’s whereabouts. But as the months wear on with no news of her husband, Marguerite must begin the process of confronting the unimaginable.

Emmanuel Finkiel is a French director and writer, known for Voyages, Madame Jacques sur la Croisette (1997) and Casting (2001).

His latest film Memory of Pain was the Official submission of France for the 'Best Foreign Language Film' category of the 91st Academy Awards in 2019.

Melanie Thierry leaps toward the front echelons of current French actresses with her riveting turn as Marguerite Duras. Thierry is utterly compelling from first to last.

Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter