''Suzanne'' is a 2013 French

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by

Katell Quillévéré Katell Quillévéré (; born 30 January 1980) is a French filmmaker. Early life Quillévéré is the daughter of an IT worker and science teacher. She was born and brought up in the Ivory Coast until the age of five. She comes from a Breton fa ...

. In January 2014 the film received five nominations at the

39th César Awards The 39th Annual César Awards ceremony, presented by the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques (Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma), was held on 28 February 2014, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. '' Me, Myself and Mum'' r ...

, with

Adèle Haenel Adèle Haenel (; born 11 February 1989) is a French actress and far-left political activist. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two César Awards from seven nominations and one Lumière Award from two nominations. Haenel bega ...

winning the award for Best Supporting Actress.

Plot

Following the death of her mother, Suzanne and her younger sister are raised by their father alone. At the age of 17, Suzanne becomes the mother of a son. Her father and her sister support the both of them. Suzanne then falls in love with a gangster named Julien, abandoning her family to follow Julien to Marseille, and eventually ending up in prison. Upon her release, she finds her son Charlie living in a

foster family Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family member a ...

. Trying to put her life together, Suzanne nevertheless falls into old habits when Julien finds her on a bus and persuades her to leave for Morocco with him. Once again abandoning her family, Suzanne has a second child. Returning home she goes to visit her mother's grave and discovers that during her absence her sister Maria has died. Crossing the border back to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

, Suzanne, in a fit of grief confesses that she is travelling on a false passport. In prison Suzanne is visited by her father, teenage son and toddler daughter and watches as her son and daughter play together.

Cast

* Sara Forestier as Suzanne Merevsky *

François Damiens François Georges Henri Marie Ghislain Joseph Damiens (; born 17 January 1973) is a Belgian actor. Career He has appeared in more than fifty films since 2000. He started his career doing hidden camera videos in the 90s and became widely popular ...

as Nicolas Merevsky *

as Maria Merevsky *

Paul Hamy Paul Hamy (born 7 January 1982) is a French actor and model. He started his career early as a model, working for Elite Model Management before turning to cinema in 2013. Career He was spotted at the age of sixteen by fashion photographer Paol ...

as Julien *

Anne Le Ny Anne Le Ny (born 16 December 1962) is a French actress, screenwriter and film director. Theatre Filmography Cinema Television Screenwriter / Director Awards and nominations References French film directors French ...

as Madame Danvers *

Lola Dueñas María Dolores Dueñas Navarro (born 6 October 1971), better known as Lola Dueñas, is a Spanish actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including two Goya Awards for Best Actress. In addition to her contributions to Spanish cine ...

as Irène *

Corinne Masiero Corinne Masiero (born 3 February 1964) is a French actress. She began acting in her late 20s, initially appearing in the theatre before moving on to the screen. She is best known for her lead role in the 2012 film ''Louise Wimmer'', for which sh ...

as Éliane

Reception

''Suzanne'' has a 91% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

and a 75/100 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

References

External links

*
Press kit
(en) {{DEFAULTSORT:Suzanne 2013 films 2013 drama films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010s French-language films French coming-of-age drama films Films directed by Katell Quillévéré 2010s French films French pregnancy films Teenage pregnancy in film Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress César Award–winning performance Mars Films films