how Sandrine Kiberlain dug into her family’s past for this film about the German occupation

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Unveiled on January 26, 2022 in cinemas, A young girl who is doing well marks Sandrine Kiberlain’s first steps behind the camera for a feature film. Counting on the participation of Rebecca Marder, André Marcon, Anthony Bajon, Françoise Widhoff, India Hair, Florence Viala, and even Ben Attal, the film tells us about one of the most troubled periods experienced by France, the occupation.

The carefree nature of a young girl despite the war

A young girl who is doing well takes us in the footsteps of Irene. A young Jewish girl, despite her occupation, she tries to live a carefree summer of 1942 at the age of 19. Driven by her passion for theater, she will discover the world in one fell swoop, between a new love, numerous friendships and the gaze of a loving family. Indeed, faced with the changes in status which continue to banish Jews from society, his father, André, will try everything to protect his family… Questioning the transition to adulthood by placing the debates in the middle Second World War, Sandrine Kiberlain hits the nail on the head.

Sandrine Kiberlain between fiction and reality

To be as close as possible to reality, Sandrine Kiberlain drew from several works. Emotionally marked by The Diary of Anne Frankshe also relied on The Diary of Hélène Berr, Parisian Jewish student. Even more, the actress remembered the stories of her Jewish grandparents during the occupation and nourished her fiction with autobiographical elements. In the press kit for her film, the director explained why: “I made Irene a young girl who wants to become an actress, I fantasized the daily life of my grandparents in 1942, that of my parents who also wanted to become actors, all Jews, all that mixed together . In reality, I have a mother, but no father, I have a sister but no brother, and in my film, it’s the opposite for Irene. I really didn’t want there to be. my mother and my sister, perhaps to talk better about myself, to approach the family more sincerely, and because I did not want to betray those close to me.”