“The Return” by Catherine Corsini accurately captures the learning of life of two teenage sisters

surprisingly funny in The divideQueer Palme in Cannes in 2021, Catherine Corsini was again in competition this year with The return out Wednesday, July 12. A story of family, guilt and love, in which two teenage girls learn about life. For the second time, she calls on her interpreter Aïssatou Diallo Sagna, originally a caregiver, in the role of a mother caught between guilt and responsibility in the face of her two daughters.

Evolution

Employed as a babysitter by a well-to-do Parisian family on vacation in Corsica, Khédidja returns to the Ile de Beaute where she lived fifteen years ago. Widowed, accompanied by her two teenage daughters, Jessica and Farah, she lives with her memories, while her children make friends, party, sometimes excessively, and discover love.

Catherine Corsini mixes personal memories and fiction in a film dominated by feelings that will evolve throughout the story. The return opens with dualistic, if not conflicting, situations. They emerge from the social status of Khédidja compared to that of his compassionate employees, then from the friction between the two sisters – one of whom is brilliant in her studies, the other not -, and finally from their relationship with their mother. In a very gradual way, by small touches, Catherine Corsini evolves her story towards rapprochements between the characters to finally forge a true love.

The island of Beauty

After the mother and her daughters, then to a lesser extent her employees and the former friend that Khédidja finds, Corsica is a real character in the film. Catherine Corsini films her marvelous landscapes avoiding any postcard effect. She evokes the fascinating reunion of the ghost with the island, and her discovery by her daughters who have the feeling of having deep roots there.

A turmoil and bewitchment specific to Corsica precede the plot to better nourish and enrich it. A mystery hangs over the original drama – the death of the father -, while in parallel Jessica and Farah live experiences that will transform them forever. Khédidja will also reconnect with lost feelings and sensations. Thus the story is constantly changing, until the revelation of a trauma which, in its resolution, will resolve all the conflicts and open this wounded family to a new era.

The sheet

Gender : Drama
Director: Catherine Corsini
Actors: Aïssatou Diallo Sagna, Esther Gohourou, Suzy Bemba, Lomane De Dietrich, Cédric Appietto, Virginie Ledoyen, Denis Podalydès
Country : France
Duration : 1h46
Exit : July 12, 2023
Distributer : The pact