Entre deux Mondes

In ‘Entre deux Mondes’, director Emmanuel Carrère paints a loving portrait of workers who are invisible to society, but find solidarity in each other, while at the same time fashioning a cutting critique of capitalist exploitation. For research purposes, successful writer Marianne (the always great Juliette Binoche) moves from Paris to Ouistreham, near Caen, to go undercover working as a cleaner on the passenger ships in the harbour. Marianne is confronted with the economic insecurity and social invisibility of her colleagues. It’s a life in which every euro counts… The cast—mostly non-professional actresses—are a match for Binoche’s star quality leading to the film winning the Audience Award for Best European Film at the San Sebastián Film Festival.


‘[Carrère’s film shares] a kinship with the work of the Dardenne brothers and Ken Loach… The film raises a thorny ethical question: is lying and misleading justifiable when the aims are laudable? Is a friendship built on deception even a friendship at all? Binoche is the star and will undoubtedly be the main draw, but it’s an incendiary, scene-dominating turn from newcomer Hélène Lambert that gives the picture its jagged, furious energy.’—Wendy Ide, The Observer