108. Plot 35 (Carré 35); movie review

PLOT 35 (CARRE 35)
Cert TBA
67 mins
BBFC advice: TBA

Imagine living for decades in a happy family environment, completely unaware of a big deceit by your parents.
Éric Caravaca is 51 years old, has his own family and is close to his mother and father.
And yet, what happened to the sister who died before he was born is shrouded in mystery.
Indeed, even the accounts of his parents have major differences. One says she was four years old when she passed away, the other four months.
During Plot 35, Caravaca muses, in melancholic narrative, on why his mother burned every photo of the young girl after her death.
During unsmiling interviews, he also asks her why she has never tended her grave nor that of her mother and father in a French cemetery in Morocco.
She gives extraordinarily deadpan responses.
Caravaca travels to North Africa in the search for answers, adding a thick strand of history because France's departure from its colonies was at the same time as his sister's death.
I was left wondering if Caravaca had second thoughts during the making of Plot 35 because every stone unturned left him questioning the ethics of parents who had taught him to always tell the truth.
The question which was left unanswered was whether his parents actually believed what they were telling him - whether, after 50 years lies become the truth.
Certainly, his mother has such conviction that struck me as possible.
Plot 35 is a brave film to make. If my parents had skeletons in their cupboards, I would prefer them to stay there.

Reasons to watch: An intimate documentary of family discovery
Reasons to avoid: It is a film of great sadness

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7/10

Director statement - Éric Caravaca: "Thinking that I would simply chronicle a forgotten life, in fact I opened up the hidden door to a past that I was unaware of, to the subconscious memory that lies inside each of us and who makes us what we are."

The big question - Can lies eventually become the truth if they are told for long enough?

Share this post