The Rapture

Q&A with Iris Kaltenbäck on Mar. 3

In the wake of an unexpected breakup with her boyfriend, midwife Lydia (Hafsia Herzi) throws herself into her work, riding the bus late into the night following long shifts at her job. Observed during these nocturnal rounds by her regular bus driver Milos (Alexis Manenti), Lydia is a restless soul who gradually sublimates her emotional life into the pregnancy of her best friend, Salomé (Nina Meurisse). Anchored by a riveting central performance from Herzi, Iris Kaltenbäck’s dreamily stylish César-nominated feature debut is a deceptively slow-burning portrait of a woman whose actions grow ever more desperate, even as she stubbornly persists in holding herself at a distance, remaining inscrutable both to herself and to the increasingly confounded loved ones caught up in her turmoil.