The Five Devils: The eponymous devils are actually five mountain peaks which provide a backdrop to the events in this French feature. Vicky (Sally Dramé) is a precocious, solitary child who is bullied at school. She has an extraordinary sense of smell, even able to track down her mother in a forest. Her mother Joanne (Adèle Exarchopoulos) is a swimming instructor, fed up with her firefighter husband Jimmy (Moustapha Mbengue), she reflects on her past glories as a swimming champion and local beauty queen. Vicky uses her facilities with scents to create copies of those of people close to her. She enters trances, travelling back in time, experiencing the events as they occurred. Things become even more fifficult for the Solers when Julia (Swala Emati), Jimmy's sister, comes to live with them. Why Julia left the the mountain town ten years ago and how it affected Jimmy, Joanne and another teenager, Nadine (Daphne Patakia) is central to the narrative. A dark film in places, entering into the slipstream of horror. Vicky seems to indirectly influence events in the past and bring physical objects back. Sally Dramé is wonderful as Vicky, accepting her abilities, not put out by her time travels but upset by her parents' deteriorating relationship. Adèle Exarchopoulos potrays the still beautiful and fit Joanne, but longs for her lost teenage years and perhaps more. She swims in an icy mountain lake for twenty minutes each day, almost as a self punishment, a great performance. Emati's fiery Julia is haunted by demons, not just of her past but those she encounters now. Mbengue;s Jimmy tries to be the anchor for this unhappy family. A story of love, guilt and elements of darkness and horror. Directed by Léa Mysius, who co-wrote the screenplay with Paul Guilhaume. 8/10.
Review of The Five Devils
