One of a pair of virtual offerings this month, one a documentary, the other fiction, focusing on hidden secrets in closed communities. (See also Songs of Repression).
Actress-turned-director Sarah Suco’s debut feature is a mesmerizing slow burn set in an insular Catholic community.
When promising 12-year-old acrobat Camille (a breakout Céleste Brunnquell) performs in a sketch that seems to make light of prayer, the church’s leader—known only as “The Shepherd” (Jean-Pierre Darroussin of Le Havre)—asks her parents to withdraw her from circus training. Her mother (Camille Cottin) has become emotionally dependent on the parish, while her father (Éric Caravaca, Lover for a Day) seems brainwashed; amidst this, covertly secular Camille and her younger brothers must come into their own.