In Paris in the 1980s, a man, fresh from his release from prison, is rejected by his wife. After a violent confrontation he throws himself from his apartment window, witnessed by his three young daughters. In present day Paris, the sisters, now grown up, live their own lives – the family bonds are broken. Sophie, the eldest, is married with young children, but suspects her photographer husband of having an affair. The youngest sister, Anne, is a student involved in a messy relationship with one of her tutors. Middle sister Céline lives a solitary and joyless life, caring for her difficult mother. When a young man starts to take an interest in her, she little suspects the true motive behind his approaches.
An intricate tragedy of three sisters, each now with problems in their adult love life, primarily derived from their mother's mistaken understanding of their father's "sexual misbehaviour". The terminally unhappy Sophie is intent upon discovering the truth behind her husband Pierre's loss of affection for her. Anne, seeking the stability and reassurance of a father-figure in her affair with Frédéric – a married Sorbonne professor and her best friend's father – finds her world has been shattered when he tells her he cannot see her again. Céline, a repressed spinster, longing for companionship but devoting her life to the needs of her institutionalised mother, misinterprets the sudden interest a young man, Sébastien, shows in her.
The reference to Medea, the tragedy of tragedies in Greek mythology, parallels the elements of misunderstanding, deceit, vengeance and unforgiveness surrounding the three women haunted by a nightmarish childhood experience. Each of the sisters lives in her own private hell, separated from her siblings. Only when the truth about their father's prison sentence for seducing a young male student is finally revealed, do the family reunite in a final attempt to understand, and come to terms with, their past.
An intense and riveting drama, subtly crafted and portrayed. The film includes a few delightful little cameos, most notably one involving an elderly lady at a bottle-bank. Tanović's realisation of the original screenplay (of which he expressed surprise at its having been written by two men) is an absolute delight. He dedicates his film simply and affectionately: à KK.
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