THE PRAYER (La Prière)

Monday, April 30 – 8:15 pm – Renoir Theatre

North American Premiere | France | 2018 | Drama | 107 min | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Cédric Kahn

Written by: Cédric Kahn, Samuel Doux, Fanny Burdino
Cinematography: Yves Cape
Film Editing: Laure Gardette
Produced by: Sylvie Pialat, Benoît Quainon (Les Films du Worso), Arte Cinéma
Cast: Anthony Bajon (Thomas), Damien Chappelle (Pierre), Alex Brendemühl (Marco), Louise Grinberg (Sybille)
International Sales: Le Pacte

Newcomer Anthony Bajon just won the Best Actor Award at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival for his riveting portrayal of Thomas, a 22-year-old heroin addict who turns up at a monastic rehab center in the French Alps. Sporting a black eye and looking like a wounded animal, Thomas is, at first, reluctant to submit himself to the center’s austere life of discipline, abstinence, physical labor and endless prayer. But his discovery of a first love and a blossoming faith in God will lead him to a new kind of torment. Cédric Kahn’s poignant, unsentimental tale, told with a crisp purity of style, chronicles Thomas’ difficult road to recovery in painstaking detail… and is blessed with a glorious cameo by the magnificent Hanna Schygulla.

Cédric Kahn | Writer/director Cédric Kahn began his career as a trainee editor on Maurice Pialat’s Under the Sun of Satan (1987), went on to become an assistant editor, then co-scripted Brigitte Roüan’s Overseas (1990). He directed his first feature, Railway Bar (1991), then Happy, Too Happy (1994), which was honored with the Prix Jean Vigo and the Youth Award at the Cannes Film Festival. His film L’Ennui (1998), adapted from a novel by Alberto Moravia, received the Prix Louis Delluc. His subsequent films include Roberto Succo (2001), Red Lights (2004), Regrets (2009), A Better Life 2011), and Wild Life (2014).

Closing film in Competition

In association with Le Pacte