’We Believe You’ review: Tense Belgian family custody drama is a knockout

Dirs/scr: Charlotte Devillers, Arnaud Dufeys. Belgium. 2025. 78mins

Charlotte Devillers and Arnaud Dufeys’ gripping debut characteristic We Consider You captures all of the abdomen churning tensions of a life-changing court docket listening to. Tightly centered, densely scripted and impeccably acted, it’s as nail biting as any splashier thriller. The impression is deepened by an examination of a authorized system through which victims wrestle to be heard and believed.  Premiering in Berlin’s Views, this can be a sturdy competition title and will acquire business traction amongst arthouse audiences who delivered a beneficial verdict on Custody (2017) and Anatomy Of A Fall (2023.

A strong drama about why victims should be believed 

It’s laborious not to think about the Dardenne Brothers when confronted with a Belgian manufacturing marked by some handheld camerawork and pressing social points. The beautiful central efficiency from Dardenne common Miriam Akheddiou (The Child With A Bike (2011), Younger Ahmed (2019) and so forth) additional encourages the comparability. Devillers, a former healthcare skilled, and Dufeys, graduating right here from shorts to options, nonetheless handle to stamp the fabric with their very own model, not least within the framing and focus.

Our coronary heart goes out to Alice (Akheddiou) from the very first second. Her offended 10 year-old son Etienne (Ulysse Goffin) is doing every part he can to cease the household catching a tram that may take them to a household court docket listening to. The digicam stays centered on Alice by the battle of wills. Her laboured respiration, state of excessive anxiousness and exasperation convey the strain on somebody barely in a position to maintain issues collectively.  Accompanied by her 17 year-old daughter Lila (Adele Pinckaers), they arrive, make their approach by safety and put together for a day of reckoning.

Devillers and Dufeys create the load of one thing inescapable of their use of a location full of ready rooms, winding corridors, glass partitions and procedures that every one conspire to limit and confine. As occasions unfold, the digicam scrutinises Alice and her reactions. We study that Alice and the kids are being introduced nose to nose together with her ex-husband (Laurent Capelluto) and a choose whose position is to find out what’s finest for the kids. Neither Etienne or Lila need any additional contact with their father.

Over the course of intensive testimony and statements, we study the household historical past and the costs pending in opposition to the husband in a separate legal case. Akheddiou’s extraordinary efficiency conveys all of the emotional put on and tear that she has endured. She creates a fully-rounded portrait of decency, exhaustion and frustration. Even the best way she sits, with a hand protectively cupping and concealing her face, speaks volumes.

We Consider You is well layered, steadily revealing extra of what has occurred and what’s at stake. The ex-husband is given his probability to talk however stays an elusive character. He seems an affordable man however every part the kids say suggests in any other case. There may be additionally a putting sense through which Alice turns into the particular person on trial, with attorneys and advisers looking for to color her as an unfit mom. They’re well mannered and well-intentioned however the impression is devastating.

Devillers and Dufeys don’t waste a minute of a decent operating time. Each position is effectively solid right here, with a noteworthy contribution from Natali Broods because the presiding choose. She has little to say however each look, look, interruption and mild reminder converse of her intention to evaluate pretty. That is a robust drama about why victims should be believed and why youngsters have to be heard in any consideration of their future; closing titles reveal some chilling statistics on the subject into account. Some questions might linger afterwards, not least about safety within the courthouse however, within the second,We Consider You is thrilling.