Seven minutes (five if you take away the two minute credits) are enough for Karin Albou to depict the drama of a little girl whose (too!) nice daddy sexually abuses her day after day. Likewise, she does not need very much in terms of storyline to make her point - powerfully indeed: Émilie, kicked out of her class, runs to take refuge in the toilets of her elementary school. There she gets upset by two events, one apparently insignificant (a dripping faucet), the other more directly unsettling for a kid (a couple hiding in the bathroom to kiss and fondle). The faucet that drips... and she finds herself back in her bath, subjected to the sensual caresses of her father; the two lovebirds ( a male and female cleaning agents) that embrace themselves under her eyes.... and she is back in her bed, the object of hand games at first playful then explicitly sexual.
As can be seen, "Chut..." (Hush...) does not evacuate its subject. While shown in a rather allusive way, the father's gestures on his daughter are unequivocal. And raise the indignation of the spectator.
In the role of the little victim, Émilie Georges remains constantly serious. She has no dialogue and says only one word in the entire film, a "yes" to her father when he asks if she loves him. Alone with herself, she cannot speak of her secret to anyone and the silence in which Karin Albou confines her has a metaphorical aspect.
At the end, no catharsis: Émilie's father comes to pick her up at school and they leave, the little girl's hand in her father's. An image of deceptive normality for those who are not aware of the situation. That is to say everybody - except of course the viewers, who know now that this means a return to hell. A desperate feeling Karin Albou still accentuates by putting in the foreground the school fence, another symbol of Emilie's lot.
« Chut... », a model of gravity, tact and meaningful brevity.
As can be seen, "Chut..." (Hush...) does not evacuate its subject. While shown in a rather allusive way, the father's gestures on his daughter are unequivocal. And raise the indignation of the spectator.
In the role of the little victim, Émilie Georges remains constantly serious. She has no dialogue and says only one word in the entire film, a "yes" to her father when he asks if she loves him. Alone with herself, she cannot speak of her secret to anyone and the silence in which Karin Albou confines her has a metaphorical aspect.
At the end, no catharsis: Émilie's father comes to pick her up at school and they leave, the little girl's hand in her father's. An image of deceptive normality for those who are not aware of the situation. That is to say everybody - except of course the viewers, who know now that this means a return to hell. A desperate feeling Karin Albou still accentuates by putting in the foreground the school fence, another symbol of Emilie's lot.
« Chut... », a model of gravity, tact and meaningful brevity.