Persecution

One Feature film more

Patrice Chéreau

Produced by

Move Movie

Production year2009

Synopsis

For his friends, of whom there are many, Daniel is a guy who is doing fine and who always exits unscathed from any situation. Struggles to keep everything on an even keel, difficult situations that require careful consideration and composure - Daniel has a talent for managing these that leaves others envious.

So much the better, because for some time now, he has needed a fair degree of determination to deal with a guy who is hassling him. A guy who came out of nowhere and who seems to think that Daniel is a gift from God and the man of his dreams. Hassling him: which means walking behind him down the street, knowing his schedule, entering Daniel's work places. Daniel is doing work for a buddy, renovating an apartment. He thinks he's alone. But right from the beginning, there have been two of them.

Daniel works regularly, but always in different places. He's his own boss; this allows him to live, free, without any constraints. He stops when he feels like it; he takes on another job when it suits him. Sometimes it's difficult, but he doesn't complain.

At least when it comes to work, that is. Sometimes Daniel gets worked up and complains about... Sonia. He's loved her for three years. She also loves him. He only just manages to recognize the latter at certain moments during the day, whereas at other times, he fails to recognize it at all. Sonia gives him few reasons to worry or doubt. Of course her timetable can sometimes be complicated, but nothing impossible, and there's the fatigue brought on by too much work, because the firm that employs her keeps giving her more and more tasks to do. He knows that deep down everything is okay. Even so, when she is there right in front of him, suddenly out of the blue, all certainty is swept away: Daniel's anxiety and anger get the upper hand. They make him become unjust, a persecutor; he becomes this hostile, hateful man who keeps nitpicking at every little thing that they've been in agreement about for ages. Suffering invades everything.

Perhaps it is this suffering that initially made Sonia love Daniel. Now it has become an insurmountable wall between them. And then there's this stranger who's ruining Daniel's life, who keeps turning up and who is no longer happy just to observe. Now he's got an opinion about everything, particularly about love. This troublesome and obsessive stranger knows how one should love and says it out loud and clear; Daniel could kill him for it.

Daniel, this man who suffers too much to love, without persecuting, the woman he has chosen.