a medium-length film on domestic violence being filmed in the Somme

In March 2022, François Mouillard was released Girl Bird, a dive into the hell of school bullying. For his new film, the director and producer tackles another scourge: domestic and intra-family violence. In Failure, it paints the portrait of Maud, a mother, abused by her alcoholic husband. A role played by the actress Vanessa Bonneau who has viewed many testimonies upstream.

“When we see these women who come to testify on TV sets, who sometimes break down and burst into tears because they have come out of hell, these are things that imbued me a lot and allowed me to understand the mechanisms of influence to which they are subject“, says the actress.

Two Versions

In the role of the violent and addicted to alcohol father, Thierry Chevalier, who immediately agreed to take on the villain’s costume. “If I do this job it’s because it makes sense, it’s to tackle themes like that, to help move certain things forward. So sometimes, it’s going to be in a lighter way, there, it’s to serve a purpose and of course it’s necessary to go on that“, explains the actor.

François Mouillard planned to make two versions of his film. A first of 59 minutes which will be released in theaters, and a second softer one intended to be screened in schools to make adolescents aware of this violence which is not trivial: “The story came to me because in my life I met people, women and men, who were being abused (…) and often you can’t imagine that these people you meet every day are being abused and under the influence of their partner“.

The output of Failure in the cinema is scheduled for November 22, 2023, a few days before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.