First feature-length fiction film by Swiss-American director Jasmin Gordon, “The Courageous”, released on January 22, evokes the theme of hidden poverty in prosperous Switzerland. The film explores the fragility of human freedom through a portrait of a woman and a family.
In a small town on the edge of the wild nature in Valais, a single mother of three children (Ophélia Kolb), eccentric and delinquent, burns herself by ignoring the rules. Crushed by her mistakes, her lies, and by society which does not give gifts – or credit – to people like her, she will do everything to prove to her children, and to herself, that she is someone good.
First fiction feature film by Swiss-American director Jasmin Gordon and RTS co-production, “The Courageous” evokes the theme of hidden poverty in prosperous Switzerland. It focuses on the courage and resources that must be drawn from within oneself to fight against precariousness.
“It’s a very personal film with elements of fiction,” says Yasmin Gordon in the 12h45 of January 14. “It’s a mixture of many different sources over the years, but above all I wanted to tell the story of a woman and a mother who finds herself in that gray area between morality and immorality. There aren’t many roles like that in cinema.
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Portrait of woman and family
To embody this courageous mother, the director chose the French actress Ophélia Kolb, who notably made a name for herself in the successful French series “Dix pour cent” or in the theater in “La menagerie de verre” (Molière of the best actress in a supporting role in 2019).
-The actress concedes that this type of role is both dizzying and sublime: “It’s very rare to read this kind of story of women, who are trying to get by, to give the illusion to their children that life is going to be very good and that everything is going to go well despite the precariousness I was also very happy to film with three children in Switzerland and to participate in the first film of Jasmin Gordon with whom the meeting was a kind of coup. lightning”.
Double awarded at the last Zurich Film Festival, “The Courageous” brilliantly highlights these people who are not much in our society by exploring the fragility of individual freedom through a portrait of a woman and a family.
Comments collected by Julie Evard
Adaptation web: Olivier Horner
“The Brave” by Jasmin Gordon, with Ophélia Kolb, Jasmine Kalisz Saurer, Paul Besnier,
Arthur Devaux. To be seen in French-speaking cinemas from January 22, 2025.
Belgium
