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The Braid

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North American Premiere

Laetitia Colombani’s assured adaptation of her own best-selling novel weaves together three stories of female struggle and perseverance across three continents. It begins, bracingly, in India, with Smita (Mia Maelzer) an “untouchable”, literally shoveling human excrement. In Puglia, Italy, Giulia (Fotina Puluso) is a confident, bookish young woman trying to keep her father’s wig business afloat after he goes into a coma. And, ascending several more social strata, in Montreal, Sarah (Kim Raver) is a successful lawyer on the verge of a senior partnership, trying to cover up an ill-timed cancer diagnosis.

Colombani cuts between these three determined, sometimes reckless women, tracking echoes and parallels as well as the obvious contrasts between their relative affluence and privilege. The film doesn’t editorialize on that score, but implies that what counts is setting your own goals rather than conforming to social expectations. This is an attractive, well-acted movie with a strong emotional pay-off and a fine score by Nomadland composer Ludovico Einaudi.

 

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Mia Maelzer, Sajda Pathan, Nehpal Gautam, Danish Iqbal, Jyoti Dalit

Credits
Country of Origin

France/Canada/Italy

Year

2023

Series

Panorama

Language

In English, Italian and Hindi with English subtitles

Film Contact
18+
120 min
Drama Women Directors

Book Tickets

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Credits

Executive Producer

Christine De Jekel

Producer

Olivier Delbosc, Marc Missonnier, Richard Lalonde, Nicola Giuliano, Francesa Cima, Carlotta Calori, Viola Prestieri, Deborah Benattar

Screenwriter

Laetitia Colombani, Sarah Kaminsky

Cinematography

Ronald Plante

Editor

Albertine Lastera

Original Music

Ludovico Einaudi

Director

Laetitia Colombani headshot

Laetitia Colombani

Laetitia Colombani is a multi-faceted woman : an actress in a dozen feature movies, a writer of internationally successful books and a director and screenwriter of short films and 3 features, including He Love Me, He Loves Me Not, starring Audrey Tautou (2002). As an actress, she has appeared in Cedric Kahn’s Fete de famille (2019) and Yvan Attal’s Les Choses Humaines (2021). The Braid is the first of her novels to be translated into English.

Filmography: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (2002); Mes stars et moi (2008)

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