The thorny subject of child abuse is depicted delicately and with great attention to detail in this affecting debut feature from young Belgian filmmaker Emanuelle Nicot. The film is part of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week programme and features an impressive turn by newcomer Zelda Samson. Les Miserables and The Eddy stars Alexis Manenti also stars alongside Marie Denarnaud and Jean-Louis Coulloc’h.
Twelve year old Dalva (Samson) lives alone with her father Jaques. One evening, the police storm into their home and arrest her father. Confused about the series of events that took place, a terrified Dalva demands to be reunited with the father she calls by his first name, but is instead given a physical exam and taken into care. Later the teenager befriends her feisty new roommate Samia (Fanta Guirassi, exquisite) who reluctantly agrees to teach her naive new friend about things she should have known by now.
Meanwhile Dalva finds solace in her close relationship with amiable social worker Jayden (Manenti). As the full scale of what really happened to her begins to sink in, Dalva lashes out against those who’ve tried to help her, including Jayden. But can she find solace in the knowledge that she now has her whole life ahead of her.
Nicot delivers a shockingly honest, and brilliantly executed drama about what it must feel like to be unwittingly under someone’s complete grip. When we first lay eyes on her, Dalva has no understanding of the nature of her father’s love for her as it is the only love she has truly known. Combining a mixture of unreliable narrator techniques with an understated observational style, it is this aspect of the story that Nicot is determined to put across throughout.
Whilst not being entirely without artifice, Nicot’s film follows in the great tradition of fellow Belgian filmmaking duo Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne who are famed for their understated, socially minded body of work. Furthermore, there a lot to admire about Nicot’s unabashed confidence in her work. Her stripped down realistic approach feels as though she already has a dozen films under her belt.
Elevated by Samson’s intense and realistic turn and Guirassi’s spikes nonchalance, Love According to Dalva has an unrivalled air of authenticity about it, and that is exactly where Nicot’s genius lies. This is a truly outstanding debut from a young filmmaker who already knows her craft onside out.
