Private Property

Pascale lives in a house in the Belgian countryside with her two grown sons. The house did not come to her in the divorce; it is kept going by her ex-husband's payments, and the twins regard it as their father's property. The sons do not work, do not do anything in the house, and use their mother as a servant. Pascale starts seeing the neighbour Jan and thinks about selling up and leaving. The sons will not allow it. Joachim Lafosse's film takes place almost entirely inside the house, and the camera looks through door gaps in long takes; there is no cut when the arguing rises. Jérémie and Yannick Renier, who play the twins, are brothers in real life. Isabelle Huppert makes the mother neither a victim nor guilty; her wanting a life of her own stands in the film as a demand rather than a right, and the discomfort comes from there. Something happens at the end, and the moment is not prepared for; it simply happens.