Love Like Poison

France 2010, 92 minutes
Dir. Katell Quillévéré
In French with English subtitles
Rating: [M] Offensive language, sexual themes and disturbing behavior.
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama

Topics: Religion.

Feat. Clara Augarde, Michel Galabru, Stefano Cassetti, Thierry Neuvic

Aroview: A potent variation on an oft-told theme, this carefully observed drama considers the fraught adolescence of a 14-year-old girl torn between religious devotion and her own sexual awakening in a bucolic region in the South of France.

Taking her cues from Maurice Pialat's excellent A NOS AMOURS, dir. Quillévéré combines spiritual grace notes with the emotional intensity of her actors to achieve something at once raw and empathetic towards the growing pains of teenage girls.

NZ International Film Festival 2011