Two women from vastly different walks of life meet in a prison in Bordeaux, both there to visit their incarcerated spouses. Having traveled a long way to get there, younger working-class Mina (Hafsia Herzi) needs a place to stay. But what was originally supposed to be a one-night stay at Alma’s (Isabelle Huppert) place soon turns into Mina and her kids living full time with the wealthy older lady. Both benefit from the arrangement in their own ways: Mina in a more concrete way, Alma rather more emotionally. But just underneath the surface, class tensions are brewing.
Isabelle Huppert once again shines in a type of role that has seen her at her best in recent years: a slightly unusual, psychologically complex bourgeois woman. French star of the younger generation Hafsia Herzi, of North African descent, is every bit as convincing as her counterpart. Patricia Mazuy’s melodrama, which premiered at Cannes last spring, is colored by ironic comic tones and social commentary. The latter is bolstered by François Bégaudeau, writer of the Palme d’Or winning The Class (Entre les murs), who co-wrote Visiting Hours with Mazuy and Pierre Courrège. The titular (female) prisoner of the film’s original title — La prisonnière de Bordeaux — gains her freedom in the end, but at what cost?
Suvi Heino