Cannes Film Festival 2022: Love According to Dalva | Review

With sensitivity and flair, Emmnanuelle Nicot delivers a powerful and poignant debut feature starring outstanding young actress Zelda Samson, presented at the 61st Critics’ Week.

Exploring the parallel sections of the Cannes Film Festival is frequently quite rewarding. Especially this year, when the 54th Directors’ Fortnight produced the majority of my favorite films from the festival so far (One Fine Morning by Mia Hansen-Løve, God’s Creatures by Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer) – by the way, I made sure to congratulate its artistic director Paolo Moretti when I ran into him while shooting interviews at the « Plage de la Quizaine », and I am sure he is relieved now that his curation work has been praised by the Film Fest Report team!

Aside from that joke, at the 61st Critics’ Week, I also discovered one of my favorite Cannes 2022 films. On May 20th, Ava Cahen, the new artistic director of the section, presented the World Premiere of the remarkable Love According to Dalva (or simply Dalva in its French title), which I wish was competing for the Palme d’Or, by director Emmanuelle Nicot, whom we were delighted to interview following the screening.

Love According to Dalva is a powerful, important and brilliantly crafted film sure to leave audiences deeply moved.

The film encapsulates a great level of tension, brutality, and gravity from the very first frame. We are thrown into a tense police arrest in a house, where a girl is screaming and attempting to prevent her father from being apprehended. This harrowing opening sequence packs a punch and sets the tone for the violence of the drama that is about to unfold. One can also observe here the strength of the bond between the daughter and her father, who cannot imagine ever being apart.

One quickly discovers that Dalva, a 12-year-old girl, was held captive and abused by her father for years. In the wake of the father’s arrest, the film follows Dalva as she is placed in a temporary center for teenagers who have been taken away from their families. Dalva is gradually introduced to other children and teenagers who have experienced painful family traumas. Dalva gradually opens up to the outside world and confronts many obstacles on her path to gently demolish her father’s view of what women should be and how she should behave towards him and men. This entire journey is chaotic and painful, but it is also extremely moving and heartbreaking.

Indeed, Emmauelle Nicot points her camera at Dalva, allowing us to see the world through her eyes. The environment around Dalva, as well as the other kids from the center, schoolmates, and social workers, gradually appear, mostly blurred at first. Dalva uses a 4.3 aspect ratio to portray the oppression surrounding Dalva, whose image is being painted, reminding me of the force of recent poignant shoulder films such as Happening (Audrey Diwan) or Playground (Laura Wandel).

What comes to the fore in this portrait is inevitably actress Zelda Samson. I have never seen any young actress quite like her. From the moment she appears on screen, one empathizes with her and cannot take their gaze away from her enticingly magnetic face and delicate soft voice. In Dalva, Zelda Samson impresses and fully merits the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award she received at the 61st Critics’ Week.

Many sequences become tremendously emotional as one observes Dalva’s world and painful evolution through the eyes of the broken girl she is. When Dalva had to face her father in court, I found myself trembling. It’s difficult to stand in front of this monster’s face, no matter how down he looks, knowing what he put young Dalva through and his level of perversity.

Besides, the film contains some very lovely moments, such as when Dalva backs off and opens up to the other youngsters, accepting her situation and going away from her Stockholm syndrom. Yes, there is a ray of hope and light in the film. Through the figure of Jayden, played by Alexis Manenti (whom you may have discovered in Ladj Ly’s Les Misérables), Emmanuelle Nicot weaves in a vibrant and serious tribute to the work of social workers.

Overall, Emmanuelle Nicot’s important film brilliantly chronicles the slow and hard recovery of Dalva with flair and sensitivity.