Une femme douce

A thought provocative, very engrossing film. Though it is slow & boring at times, it rewards the viewer in the end. Hats off to the director.

Good acting, good screenplay, minimal dialogues. I will cherish this film for many years.

A Not To Be Missed film.

I never read Dostoyevsky's short story that inspired the 2h20 film, so I'm not sure if the written story also reveals a large country where corruption is the dominating rule. If you are the usual movie fan, be prepared for long quite shots, raw characters, sophisticated narrative and humor. The story takes the viewer through a Kafkaesque and labyrinthine sequence of incidents and misfortunes where promises are broken and hope lives faraway. I guess it's all about Putin's Russia but also about Czar's and Stalin's nation. I like the movie but some creative solutions are a bit excessive.

This incredible movie was hard to watch but it was well worth it. The original story of Fyodor Dostoyevsky was adapted by the director to Putin's time, so much so that I thought that the movie (filmed in 2017) was made after the start of the present Ukraine war. The un-named woman leaves her residence and travels to the prison where her husband is held, without knowing that she enters a kafkaesque maze where the individual is a prisoner of the whim of the authorities. The reader is advised to remember all the passersby because they will be back towards the end. A very unusual movie, worth watching by all means despite its length.

A woman struggles to access her imprisoned husband, to get him a parcel, to check on his wellbeing: not in the 19th century, but modern day Russia - a damning film about corruption and the devastation it leaves, the tragic effects it has on the innocent and the sour taste it leaves behind.

I must confess this. Till the last 20 minutes I had some doubts about this movie. I was questioning some scenes and I was about to see this movie as an average try to make a good movie. But the last 20 minutes completes the whole movie perfectly and all my doubts were erased and I was totally wrong on my questioning. It is like a puzzle and the last big piece comes at the end. I found a piece of Fellini's festive language and Tarkovsky's mystery in the movie but it is totally a brand new approach, not an imitated way, contrarily very fresh approach. Very impressive movie, very impressive direction and performance of all artists. All I can say is just to thank to them. It must be watched!