Like Cléo in Agnès Varda’s film, Barbara has her fortune told at the beginning of Les mains libres. Can the cards shed light on a recent encounter? Neither the fortune teller nor her best friend has anything good to say about this new love. “It is highly recommended” that she get out of the game while it is still possible. Barbara is a director who makes films in prison. Michel is a prisoner who takes part in her film workshop. They fall in love. Their seemingly controlled relationship goes off the rails. But they are not only separated by the prison wall. In an exchange between the inside and the outside world, their passion develops through touch, whispering, furtive letters and looks. In this story, nobody’s hands are free. The lovers are abandoned to fate, imprisoned by their love.
With a fine sense for nuance, Brigitte Sy delivers an impassioned film about forbidden love. In Ronit Elkabetz as Barbara, she has found a stunning proxy to tell her very intimate, autobiographical story. Les mains libres is a story about filmmaking and the re-invention of love. Imprisonment is no impediment to passion. (Cécile Tollu-Polonowski)
Production: Mezzanine Films, Paris
Screenplay: Brigitte Sy, Gaëlle Macé
Camera: Frédéric Serve
Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Carlo Brandt, Noémie Lvovsky, François Négret, Denis Maréchal, Romain Goupil
Format: 35mm, color
Running time: 100 min.
Language: French
