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SYNOPSIS
Lydia, a midwife highly invested in her career, has completely lost control of her life. Was it due to heartbreak, her best friend Salomé's pregnancy, or meeting Milos, with whom she could have a potential new relationship ? Lydia gets stuck in a spiral of lies where everyone's life is turned upside down. |
"Iris Kaltenbäck’s debut feature film, Le ravissement, (translated as The Rapture) seems to pull its conflict from a “faits divers” which is to say it’s story one might read a brief headline about in a newspaper. What Kaltenbäck presents, however, goes far beyond a superficial headline. Clocking in at only 97 minutes, Le ravissement is somehow a suspenseful slow burn. It is an intimate story: a meditation on modern loneliness, shared joy and grief, complicated female friendships, deceit, and manipulation. Maternity is indeed a central focus, as we follow the enigmatic Lydia through her workdays as a Parisian midwife and through her best friend’s pregnancy. But maternity is only one layer of this film. When presented with the opportunity to lie by omission about the baby in her arms, Lydia takes it, perhaps without thinking. The film begins with Lydia’s white sometimes playful lies: lying about her moods, her friend’s surprise party, a pregnancy test. But she soon becomes entangled in it all. Her lies become so big the viewer is left to wonder if it all is premeditated. Narrated by a victim of the lies, the movie poses the question—why lie? But more importantly it asks—what does a lie do? Does it change the liar? By the end of the movie, we know no more about Lydia than the narrator does, and we are left to wonder whether she is the victim or villain of her own story. Le ravissement premiered during Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, where it won the Prix SACD de la Semaine de la Critique. Its lead actress, Hafsia Herzi was nominated for Best Actress at the 2023 César Awards. And in January 2024, Le ravissement won Best First Film at the Prix Lumières."
(from the introduction to the film by Victoria Cheff, graduate student in French & Francophone Studies)
"The film is directed by Iris Kaltenback and serves as a psychological deep dive, or ultrasound, around the complexities (and even the perversions) of motherhood.
In a revealing interview with Cineuropa, the filmmaker shared the spark that ignited the creation of The Rapture. The story was born from a newspaper headline about a woman who committed an unthinkable act. Kaltenback embarked on this cinematic journey not to judge but to explore the complexities of human nature. She aimed to transform what sounded like an extraordinary event into something relatable, illustrating how anyone of us might gradually become entangled in a web of deceit. What is it that leads someone to live a lie?—she wondered.
I conclude my brief introduction by pointing out how the film's soundtrack will emerge as a character in its own right. Composed by Alexandre De La Baume, the score weaves a tapestry of subtle string arrangements and dissonant melodies, enriching the film's atmosphere and emotional depth. The music prompts us to consider the importance of the seemingly innocuous… A small lie at the film's outset might foreshadow greater deceptions to come."
(from the introduction to the film by Giovanna Conti, graduate student in Italian Studies)
