Léa Mysius’s cinema as to this point focused on adolescence and sensory awakening, the body as transformation and instability but with her third feature she has moved into genre. She broke through with 2017’s Ava in the Critics’ Week and then Directors’ Fortnight with 2022’s Les Cinq Diables. Histoires de la Nuit aka The Birthday Party sees Hafsia Herzi, Benoît Magimel, Bastien Bouillon, Monica Bellucci and the young Tawba El Gharchi in a home invasion thriller about Thomas, Nora, and their daughter Ida — who live on a remote marshland, with limited social contact apart from their one neighbor. As they plan a surprise birthday party for Nora, strange disturbances begin to occur.
Unfortunately the festival competition ended with one of the worst graded films — Histoires de la Nuit received an average score of 2.3.
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