Do you know “restorative justice”? This exciting process is described in I will always see your faces by Jeanne Herry. The director of Pupil was surrounded by a five-star cast (Adèle Exarchopoulos, Leila Bekhti, Miou-Miou, Elodie Bouchez, Gilles Lellouche and Dali Benssalah) to talk about this device intended to appease victims of aggression.
“There are two types: mediation, which allows victims to talk to their attackers, and meetings, which bring together victims and offenders who have committed the same type of violence that they have suffered. Everyone participates on a voluntary basis without financial compensation or remission of sentence, “explains Jeanne Herry to 20 minutes. His film of rare power, an ode to resilience, treats its subject with as much talent as modesty.
Brilliant performance
“For the mediation, I chose to talk about incest and how a young man can dominate his family while attacking his sister, explains the director. For the “encounters”, I wanted to take a type of violence that is too often trivialized without thinking of the impact it had on the victims. “Snatch robbery, home-jacking or hold-up in a convenience store confront traumatized women and men with inmates unaware of the damage they have caused.
The reconstruction of the victims like their anger are at the center of a story where the close-ups on the performers share their emotions. “Restorative justice is based on orality, which made it possible to offer an original variant of trial films while highlighting the compositions of actresses and actors” specifies Jeanne Herry. All performances are incredibly accurate even during the toughest confrontation sequences.
An open door to hope
“Restorative justice helps to heal victims while promoting the accountability of abusers, that’s why this subject fascinated me”, insists Jeanne Herry. The humanity that emerges from these meetings, from which everyone emerges enriched, brings as much reflection as benevolence to the spectator. Jeanne Herry does not angelize delinquents. She gives ways to prevent them from reoffending when they understand the seriousness of their acts. I will always see your faces does not provide a miracle solution: this intelligence-boosted film opens a door to reconstruction.