A film by Louis-Julien Petit. In French with German subtitles.

[Credits] [Termine] [Trailer]

Envol (mea­ning “taking flight”) is a home­l­ess day shel­ter for women in the bleak north of France. It is run by women: Manu (Corinne Masiero, who was unfor­gettable as a woman living out of her car in Louise Wimmer – SFFF 2013), Audrey (Audrey Lamy), and Angélique (Déborah Lukumuena). They are assis­ted by a vol­un­teer, the posh, soon-to-be-sin­gle, and nai­ve Hélène (Noémie Lvovsky). They genui­ne­ly care for the women who line up at the gates every mor­ning. The shel­ter offers a warm show­er, a hot meal, cama­ra­de­rie, and coun­seling. But the city decla­res that Envol is not hel­ping enough women get off the streets. It is not pro­fi­ta­ble and the decis­i­on is bru­t­ally final: Envol will clo­se in three months.

Audrey, Manu, and the others deci­de to make the best out of the­se three months, and do wha­te­ver it takes to help their girls one last time. And that includes ben­ding the rules. The shel­ter beco­mes a kind of boot camp for reinte­gra­ti­on, with the social workers clan­des­ti­ne­ly allo­wing the women to sleep the­re over­night and trai­ning them in the day to beco­me con­fi­dent and func­tio­ning mem­bers of society.

Invisibles suc­cessful­ly mixes come­dy with a docu­men­ta­ry approach. Real-life home­l­ess women por­tray­ing them­sel­ves with humor star in the film. That includes Adolpha van Meerhaeghe. Like the woman she por­trays –Chantal, may­be the most memo­rable cha­rac­ter of the film – she used to sleep out­side the Lille train sta­ti­on and ser­ved time in pri­son for kil­ling her vio­lent hus­band. Actress Corinne Masiero hers­elf, now the star of one of France’s most popu­lar TV crime dra­ma series, Capitaine Marleau, open­ly talks about being home­l­ess in her twen­ties. Director Louis-Julien Petit spent a year vol­un­tee­ring in women’s home­l­ess shel­ters, say­ing that he wan­ted to get the tone of the film right: “I had a lot of pre­con­cei­ved ide­as but when I was in the shel­ters, what I found was peo­p­le who were just like me.”

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Credits:

Les Invisibles
FR 2019, 102 Min., frz. OmU
Regie und Buch: Louis-Julien Petit
nach dem Buch von Claire Lajeunie „Sur La Route Des Invisibles, Femmes Dans La Rue“
Kamera: DAVID CHAMBILLE
Schnitt: ANTOINE VAREILLE & NATHAN DELANNOY
mit: Audrey Lamy, Corinne Masiero, Noémie Lvovsky, Déborah Lukumuena, Sarah Suco, Brigitte Sy, Pablo Pauly, Quentin Faure u.a.

Termine:

• noch kei­ne oder kei­ne mehr 

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Trailer: