One day, the young mother Christelle panics and runs. Her husband Laurent sets out to find her, baby in arms. He questions her father, sister, friends. Suddenly, Christelle’s disappearance exposes cracks that had remained hidden in a seemingly perfect world. A complex network of relationships turns out to be a fragile house of cards. Dominique Cabrera’s third feature film brings together a magnificent ensemble of actors, all of whom are allowed to express the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of their characters with wit and empathy, above all Marilyne Canto, who plays the leading role here and whom Cabrera cast in four of her five feature films.

The 1990s were the heyday of the lightweight and affordable Hi8 cameras, a time that brought forth many first-person documentaries. Unlike most of these films, Cabrera’s diary, shot in 1995, is not a purely introspective work. She focuses primarily on the others: her adolescent son, her ex-husband and her new love, her mother and the strangers on the train and in the streets. Her form of autobiography is always collective, social, polyphonic. It is only the other’s gaze, the returned gaze, that makes understanding and insight possible. The camera serves as a catalyst of communication, creating trust and distance at the same time, opening eyes and ears.