Lourdes
Filmmaker: Jessica Hausner
Austria / 2010 / 96 mins / French
Opening Weekend Date: 26 March 2010
Cinemas screening the film: Chelsea Cinema, Curzons Richmond & Soho, Renoir & Key Cities
Winner of the Best Feature award at this year's Festival
High suspense, Golden Lion nominated mystery film from hotly tipped Jessica Hausner. César Award-winning actress Sylvie Testud (Piaf's best friend in La Vie En Rose) is Christine, a wheelchair-bound woman on a trip to pilgrimage site Lourdes. Unlike the rest of the group, Christine seeks social interaction and an escape from isolation rather than a miracle cure. To say any more would be un crime du cinema: Lourdes is a beguiling mystery which has been compared to films by suspense-masters Hitchcock and Tarkovsky.
"Lourdes is an accomplished work which radiates intelligence." - Screen Daily
"Simply breathtaking" and "Satisfying in ways that fiction rarely achieves." - Hollywood Reporter
"Hausner tackles a heavy subject in a delicate manner, and there’s a comic vein running through Lourdes which is rewarding" - Screen Daily
5* - Financial Times
4* - The Guardian
About the Director: Jessica Hausner
Austrian writer-director Jessica Hausner made her name on the festival circuit with her acclaimed Lovely Rita (2001) and Hotel (2004), both striking dramas with an isolated young woman at their heart.
High suspense, Golden Lion nominated mystery film from hotly tipped Jessica Hausner.