Dir:Jessica Hausner / Austria,France / 2009 / 96mins / Cert: G
Starring: Sylvie Testud, Lea Seydoux, Bruno Todeschini, Elina Lowensohn, Gerhard Liebmann and Linde Prelog.
Language: French
How would we honestly react if we witnessed a miracle? That’s the question on Austrian writer-director Jessica Hausner’s lips as she casts a deeply ironic eye over the ties between commercialism and spiritual healing in this brilliant and satisfyingly illusive Francophone think-piece.
It sees Testud’s paraplegic pilgrim looking to the divine for physical welfare and achieving unexpectedly life-changing results. The subdued and slyly comic register of the performances and the gorgeous, deadpan shooting style are the only tools Hausner gives us to decipher her tale, leaving you to decide whether modern religion is a sham or a saver of souls.
