Catherine Corsini’s Le retour (Homecoming) – 2023 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 1
The second film in the comp and first French film item and one of seven feature debuts from female filmmakers comes with an interesting non-footnote. She has had her share of controversy in the past for what we find on the screen and will have received a bit of fanfare before anyone has laid eyes on the film this time out, Catherine Corsini‘s third trip to the competition and fourth trip to Cannes (her 2012 film Trois mondes was in the Un Certain Regard section) was actually one of the last entries for this 2023 horse race. Following La Repetition in 2001, and 2021’s La Fracture (aka The Divide), Le retour (Homecoming) was a project that went into production in September of last year and saw the filmmaker re-team with her La Fracture discovery in actress Aïssatou Diallo Sagna. Partner in crime Élisabeth Perez once again produces. This will be up for the Queer Palme – she won this award for her last feature.
Co-written alongside Naïla Guiguet, the major focus of the film rides on the shoulders of Aïssatou Diallo Sagna, Suzy Bemba and Esther Gohourou – from 2020’s Cuties fame, Khédidja works for a wealthy Parisian family who offers her to take care of their children for a summer in Corsica. Bringing along her own two teenage daughters, it is a chance for them to go back to the island they left 15 years earlier, in tragic circumstances. While Khédidja struggles with her memories, the two girls indulge in all the summer temptations. They also begin to wonder about their past here. As they scratch the surface of the family story told by their mother, they discover who they really are.
Current temp: The majority of our jury were able to catch the late night press screenings for the film and we are just half a point shy of the average passing grade with a 2.9 – so a great new film for Corsini but unlikely too be a major contender later down the road for prizing.
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