Film about the homeless: A social drama as a French comedy - running!

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If a filmmaker chooses a socially-critical non-fiction book and the associated documentary as the basis for his film and also uses the real persons as amateur actors, he runs the risk of becoming unbearable social kitsch - or swinging the morale club.

Not so the Frenchman Louis-Julien Petit. He has been inspired by a film documentary about homeless women in northern France and retold them in a light tone and with a documentary look. He has already used some of the protagonists from the documentary for his film. Full of heat, he succeeds in creating an unusual symbiosis of social drama and comedy.

Petit settles his story in a day care center for homeless women. Every day, four social workers - some permanent employees, some volunteers - try to care for their children, provide hot meals and showers, and try to accompany them on their way back to a regular day-to-day life. But only four percent of assisted women manage to get away from the street, as the city administration one day states warning. The device threatens the off.

Life coaching for all

When an illegal tent camp is cleared of the city, the social workers have to act. The homeless women are not only beating their sleeping quarters in the center, but social worker Audrey (Audrey Lamy) also comes up with the idea of ​​training women in their skills and qualifications. Those who have made shame names such as Lady Di, Brigitte Macron or Edith Piaf, so conquer their identities, which were long hidden.

There's Chantal (Adolpha Van Meerhaeghe), who can fix everything, no matter if washing machines, mopeds, irons. She has learned this in prison, where she was imprisoned after she killed her husband. Outspoken, she tells this at every job interview for even the smallest part-time job. Or Catherine (Marie-Christine Orry), who was once a psychoanalyst, but ended up on the street because of depression. Now she coaches the women in role-playing games for job interviews and in socially compatible practices. At the same time, she does not spare the social workers.

"The splendor of the invisible"
France 2018
Director: Louis-Julien Petit
Screenplay: Louis-Julien Petit, Claire Lajeunie, Marion Doussot, based on the non-fiction book by Claire Lajeunie
Performers: Audrey Lamy, Corinne Masiero, Adolpha Van Meerhaeg, Noemie Lvovsky, Déborah Lukumuena
Production: Elemiah; Apollo Films, France 3 Cinéma, Filmalac Information, Pictanovo
Rental: Piffl media
Length: 102 minutes
FSK: from 6 years
Start: October 10, 2019

Because just like the homeless women, even those who take care of them, mostly unnoticed by society. And at the same time they are still dealing with their own problems: Audrey, for example, young, idealistic and with a helper syndrome that leaves her no time for private happiness - perhaps because she is afraid of it. Or Hélène (Noémie Lvovsky), a volunteer who fills the emptiness of her failing marriage with her commitment. Manu (Corinne Masiero) leads the day care center weary of the mills of the authorities with pragmatism and warm-hearted indulgence. Her teenage brash adoptive daughter Angélique (Déborah Lukumuena) once rescued her from a raping friend.

Director and screenwriter Petit chooses no single main character, not among the homeless women, not among the social workers. With equal attention and respect he treats all his figures, almost meandering he follows one or the other. This may seem aimless, but Petit finds it a narrative style that simply mimics the wandering and the pushing around of women exactly. He leaves gaps in the biographies, gives no clear answers. Casually he captures the stories, the courage, the self-confidence and the self-irony of women. And sometimes the resignation.

In the video: The trailer for "The shine of the invisible"

Video

Piffl

Petit, born in 1986, was socially critical in his debut "Discount" (2014), addressing the precarious conditions in supermarkets, citing Ken Loach and Stephen Frears as role models. But while above all Loach wagging his moral finger, Petit countered the difficulties with something hopeful.

In one scene, many of the women walk headlong over a catwalk of greasy mattresses from the shelter. Then, at the latest, "The Splendor of the Invisible" becomes a clever feminist manifesto - accompanied by Annie Lennox's "Sisters are doin 'it for themselves".