Invisibles

Q&A with Louis-Julien Petit, Deborah Lukumuen & Corinne Masiero on March 7

With pathos and institutional nuance, Louis-Julien Petit’s third social-realist drama transforms its source nonfiction text by Claire Lajeunie into a spirited ensemble piece about a daytime shelter for homeless women. Following the municipal government’s decision to shut down the institution, largely due to the optics of meager reintegration statistics, the shelter’s conscientious all-female staff launches into action to help secure employment for as many women as possible. However, their increasingly assertive coaching sessions compel the social workers to confront the ways in which they, too, might be focusing more on printed résumés than people. In this buoyant character-driven study indebted to Stephen Frears and Ken Loach, Petit lays bare the broken and oppressive systems plaguing Paris’s approach to homelessness, while also emphasizing the social element of social work. North American Premiere

Explore the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema brochure flipbook or read below. See the full lineup & schedule here.