Dir. Audrey Diwan, 2021, France, 100 min, DCP, color
With Anamaria Vartolomei, Kacey Mottet Klein, Luàna Bajrami, Sandrine Bonnaire, and Pio Marmaï
In French with English subtitles

Venice Film Festival 2021 – Winner of the Golden Lion
BAFTA Awards 2022 – Best Director Nominee

French author Annie Ernaux has been awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of the masterpieces of Ernaux’s oeuvre, L’événement (Happening), was brought to screen in 2021 by Audrey Diwan. FIAF is delighted to bring the film to New York audiences as part of Burning Bright 2022.

Happening is the story of promising young French student, Anne, who becomes unexpectedly pregnant in 1963, when abortion was still illegal. As she weighs the choices that lay ahead, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background slipping away. With her final exams approaching and belly growing, Anne resolves to act. In doing so, she must confront shame, pain, and even the risk of prison.

A semi-autobiographical account of Ernaux’s own clandestine abortion in 1964 France, the story’s themes continue to ring true today.

“Throughout, Diwan’s gaze remains clear, direct, fearless. She shows you a part of life that the movies rarely do.” – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times