Directed by Xavier Legrand
France | 2018 | Fiction | 93 min | French w/English subtitles
Film Source: Kino Lorber
Awards / premier festivals: Venice - Silver Lion
Sponsor: Alliance française of the Lake Champlain Region
This is a directorial debut of longtime actor Xavier Legrand (who appeared in Louis Malle’s Au Revoir les Enfants as a child), but you’d never know it; Custody takes an everyday case of domestic violence and elevates it to a riveting domestic drama. The film begins with an air of documentary reality before evolving into a claustrophobic thriller, slowly building tension until all doubt is put to rest in its grand finale. Have no worries — no direct violence is shown on screen. “As Alfred Hitchcock said,” Legrand quotes an interview, “there is no terror in the bank, only in the anticipation of it.” Variety cited Legrand as one of the 10 directors to watch in 2018. Come to the film and you’ll see why. ~ OY