An intimate abortion drama set in France in 1963, when the procedure was illegal, Happening is a gruelling tale of a student trying to find her way through her early life, facing prejudice all around. Adapted from Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel, Anna Maria Vartolomei is Anne, a literature student who becomes pregnant as exams loom and her future becomes foggy and unclear.
It’s a claustrophobic time still: freewheeling free love may be just around the corner as the 60s progress, but not in Anne’s community. Her friends may all talk about sex, one even demonstrating masturbation in front of them, but pregnancy is viewed as a dead end, a trap from which there is no escape. To get an abortion is punishable with prison time and also holds serious personal risk, even death – but Anne is determined to go ahead.
The father of the child is dismissive and wants nothing to do with the process, leaving an increasingly desperate Anne to navigate the dangerous waters herself. Doctors profess clandestine help but simply aid the growth of the foetus, leading Anne to a grisly fate. Superbly played by Vartolomei and directed with intense, uncomfortable immediacy by Diwan, Happening is a gripping drama from a singular point of view in a far from progressive society. It’s also a rich character study and snapshot of its time: as Anne’s pregnancy bump grows, so does her risk of dying from a backstreet procedure, leading to a horrific operation filmed with unsettling reality by the empathetic Diwan. Not an easy watch but a necessary one, told on a personal scale with Vartolomei excelling as the troubled youngster.
Dir: Audrey Diwan (15, 100 mins)
Out Fri 22 Apr
words KEIRON SELF