On the subject too seldom tackled of voluntary interruptions of pregnancy, Les bureaux de Dieu (God’s Offices) by Claire Simon moves by its sensitivity and the force of the speech which emerges from it.

Part of the Director’s Fortnight, the film infiltrates the walls of a family planning. We discover there the team made of psychologists, social workers, nurses, gynaecologists… in their work of accompaniment of young girls and older women who find themselves confronted to a nondesired pregnancy.

Near to the form of documentary, Les bureaux de Dieu mixes well-known actresses (Nathalie Baye, Béatrice Dalle, Isabelle Carré…) and actor (Emmanuel Mouret) with young anonymous girls. The film is built on a multiplication of talks filmed mainly in sequence shots, camera on the shoulder. The camera films very close to the bodies, listens and stays on glances and gestures. Nobody comes out from it unharmed: the consulted woman of course, but also the team which absorbs all the sufferings and the distress of the patients.

With an economy of means adapted to this difficult and delicate subject, Claire Simon manages in Les bureaux de Dieu to capture the attention of the spectator. The force of the film is in this multiplication of these meetings and the diversity of those. Whatever the reasons are (the age, the religion, the social background,...), a termination of pregnancy is not an easy test in the life of a woman.

Les bureaux de Dieu directed by Claire Simon (with Nathalie Baye, Emmanuel Mouret, Isabelle Carré, Rachida Brachnie,…)
Director’s Fortnight

Aurélie