’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 Imagine You captures all of the abdomen churning tensions of a life-changing court docket listening to. Tightly targeted, densely scripted and impeccably acted, it’s as nail biting as any splashier thriller. The influence is deepened by an examination of a authorized system during which victims battle to be heard and believed.  Premiering in Berlin’s Views, it is a robust competition title and will achieve industrial traction amongst arthouse audiences who delivered a beneficial verdict on Custody (2017) and Anatomy Of A Fall (2023.

A strong drama about why victims have to be believed 

It’s onerous not to think about the Dardenne Brothers when confronted with a Belgian manufacturing marked by some handheld camerawork and pressing social points. The gorgeous central efficiency from Dardenne common Miriam Akheddiou (The Child With A Bike (2011), Younger Ahmed (2019) and many others) 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 fashion, 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 all the pieces he can to cease the household catching a tram that can take them to a household court docket listening to. The digicam stays targeted on Alice by way of the battle of wills. Her laboured respiration, state of excessive nervousness and exasperation convey the stress on somebody barely capable of maintain issues collectively.  Accompanied by her 17 year-old daughter Lila (Adele Pinckaers), they arrive, make their method by way of safety and put together for a day of reckoning.

Devillers and Dufeys create the burden of one thing inescapable of their use of a location stuffed with ready rooms, winding corridors, glass partitions and procedures that each one conspire to limit and confine. As occasions unfold, the digicam scrutinises Alice and her reactions. We study that Alice and the youngsters 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 youngsters. Neither Etienne or Lila need any additional contact with their father.

Over the course of in depth testimony and statements, we study the household historical past and the costs pending towards the husband in a separate felony 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 way in which she sits, with a hand protectively cupping and concealing her face, speaks volumes.

We Imagine You is well layered, step by step 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 all the pieces the youngsters say suggests in any other case. There may be additionally a placing sense during which Alice turns into the individual on trial, with legal professionals and advisers in search of to color her as an unfit mom. They’re well mannered and well-intentioned however the influence is devastating.

Devillers and Dufeys don’t waste a minute of a decent working time. Each position is properly 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 guage pretty. That is a strong drama about why victims have to be believed and why kids should be heard in any consideration of their future; closing titles reveal some chilling statistics on the subject into account. Some questions could linger afterwards, not least about safety within the courthouse however, within the second,We Imagine You is thrilling.