Florence Loiret Caille is striking with her accuracy in Cold Head (review)
Director of acclaimed documentaries, Stéphane Marchetti signs his first fiction, a unique and particularly realistic drama.
Stéphane MarchettiAlbert-London prize for Rafah, chronicles of a city in the Gaza Strip (2008), drew directly on the encounters made on his documentary Calais, children of the jungle (2017), dedicated to underage migrants trying to cross into England, to create his first fiction entitled Cold Head. Here, it is on the threshold of another border – just as absurd – that the intrigue takes place: in the middle of the mountains, between Italy and France.
Already significant in The Legends Office, Florence Loiret Caille is striking in its accuracy. She plays Marie, a broke woman who survives on a small cigarette trade. When she meets young Souleymane (Saabo Balde), ready to do anything to find his little sister who has taken refuge in England, her daily life changes. Out of humanity, and to get her head above water, she decides to help him.
Their beautiful human relationship, complementary and full of hope, contrasts with the hostile nature of the mountain, filmed at night, in the snow or in the middle of a storm, which keeps the viewer under tension from start to finish.
If the story is too similar to the recent The price of passage (with Alice Isaaz, 2023) so as not to stutter, its inspired production, alternating between hand-held camera and more composed moments, allows the film to make its own voice heard, in a suffocating tension until its more complex conclusion than it seems.
Cold Head by Stéphane Marchetti, with Florence Loiret Caille, Saabo Balde, Jonathan Couzinié… Released on January 17, 2024.
