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BERLINALE 2022 Competition

Review: One Year, One Night

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- BERLINALE 2022: Isaki Lacuesta explores the harrowing effects of trauma through the story of a couple who survive the Bataclan attack in Paris

Review: One Year, One Night
Noémie Merlant and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart in One Year, One Night

On 13 November 2015, Paris suffered the worst terrorist attack in its history: a string of coordinated onslaughts in which 130 people lost their lives, leaving hundreds wounded and triggering a shockwave that travelled the length and breadth of the planet in mere minutes. The lives of those who survived were traumatised forever, riddled by invisible scars that they carried around with them long after the gunshots had ceased to ring out, redefining their very existence and their relationship with their surroundings. This is the focus of One Year, One Night [+see also:
trailer
interview: Isaki Lacuesta
film profile
]
, the latest film by Catalonian director Isaki Lacuesta (who has won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival twice – once for The Double Steps [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
and again for Between Two Waters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isaki Lacuesta
film profile
]
), which celebrated its world premiere in the main competition of this year’s Berlinale.

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Based on the book Peace, Love and Death Metal by Ramón González, a survivor of the terrorist attack, the film revolves around the story of Ramón and Céline (played by the stunning Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Noémie Merlant), a young French-Spanish couple who are attending the concert at the Bataclan (the venue that suffered the highest number of victims) as the attacks take place. The screenplay, co-penned by Lacuesta and his regular collaborators Isa Campo and Fran Araújo, explores the aftermath of this traumatic event and its effects on the lives and relationship of the protagonists, as well as the different ways they have of approaching the mourning process. While the character of Ramón allows himself to get overwhelmed by fear and pain from the get-go, trying to retain everything in his mind, right down to the smallest details of what happened, Céline settles into a pattern of stubborn denial, blocking her own memories and feelings, until they end up spilling out in a harrowing moment of catharsis.

The movie kicks off with the powerful image of the couple heading home after the attack, wrapped up in their shiny thermal blankets that reflect the lights of the ambulances and police cars speeding through the night, accompanied by the atmospheric score by Raül Fernández Miró. From that moment on, we witness a fragmented form of editing (courtesy of Sergi Dies and Fernando Franco) that constantly jumps between different timelines, echoing the characters’ state of mind. Lacuesta recreates the dramatic moment of the attacks with great precision and the utmost respect, without letting things spiral into morbid fascination or sensationalism, refusing at all times to show the perpetrators, but also nudging those who lost their lives into the background (a decision that could be classed as morally questionable, but which represents an original approach to the topic).

Although it may occasionally seem a tad frivolous in its approach, the film is not actually a story about the attacks, but rather a painful study on the indelible remnants of trauma, which lead to the breakdown of a couple. It’s a markedly emotional drama in which Pérez Biscayart once again proves himself to be one of the most fascinating actors working today, in a vulnerable and moving performance that finds a solid counterpart in the sterling work of Merlant. Their characters are forced to find new ways of living together while their relationship falls apart at the seams, incapable of communicating and compelled to decide between getting carried away by hatred or fighting to avoid being defined as victims, celebrating life in all its mind-boggling complexity.

One Year, One Night is a Spanish-French co-production, staged by Bambú Producciones, Mr. Fields and Friends, La Termita Films and Noodles Productions. StudioCanal is in charge of its international sales.

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(Translated from Spanish)


Photogallery 14/02/2022: Berlinale 2022 - Un año, una noche

39 pictures available. Swipe left or right to see them all.

Isaki Lacuesta, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Noémie Merlant
© 2022 Fabrizio de Gennaro & Dario Caruso for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it, dario-caruso.fr, @studio.photo.dar, Dario Caruso

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