The restless | “What are you doing, dad? » ★★★½

Leïla, a mother, fights day by day to try to save the couple she forms with Damien, her bipolar husband. They love each other deeply, but the effects of the disease are felt harshly in their daily lives. He tries to move on with his life knowing that he may never be able to give her what she wants.

Inspired by the autobiographical story The restless, by Frenchman Gérard Garouste, Joachim Lafosse’s feature film focuses on the family and the couple, his favorite themes. After divorce (The economy of the couple2016) and infanticide (to lose reason, 2011), the Belgian director chose to focus on mental illness. Having himself lived with a bipolar father, he manages to depict a daily life at the mercy of crises, but tinged with an unfathomable love.

Damien and Leïla are in love. He is a painter and she is a restorer of antique furniture. Above their heavenly estate in the Luxembourg countryside, where they live with their son, a cloud hovers. That of the father’s illness, that of the manic phases that continually threaten to shake the household.

Country house, inground pool and enchanting landscape: the aesthetic setting contrasts with the striking dramatic tensions around which the story revolves. We are bewitched by the direction of the very organic photography of Jean-François Hensgens (faithful accomplice of Lafosse), which marries perfectly with the sensitive scenario of the restless.

How to protect the bonds between the members of a family in need of stability? Little Amine is constantly jostled between his parents. Brilliantly played by the young Gabriel Merz Chammah (grandson of the great Isabelle Huppert), the character is touching and central. At the heart of a perpetual quarrel whose nature he does not quite understand, he plays the role of witness for the spectator and it is through him that we grasp the extent of what is inflicted on his family.

With the turmoil, Leïla’s distress intensifies. More and more tears and frantic puffs of cigarettes invite themselves. Paranoia develops within the family unit. In trying to help him overcome the crises, Damien’s loved ones suffocate him and injure themselves.

VS‘is above all the story of a disarming struggle motivated by love, fueled by the intense interpretations of a magnificent trio of actors. Staging mental illness is not easy, and Joachim Lafosse does it brilliantly, without being grating or too extravagant. Damien’s bipolarity is a character in itself, who often unbalances the family cocoon, but who occasionally agrees to disappear to give way to pure moments of light.

Indoors

Drama

The restless

Joachim Lafosse

With Damien Bonnard, Leïla Bekhti and Gabriel Merz Chammah

1:59
Indoors

★★★½