The Dazzled

Camille is twelve, does circus training, and wants a place at a good circus school. Meanwhile her family joins a Catholic charismatic community. At first it looks like a prayer group: singing, worship, sharing. Then the rules multiply. Money is handed over, possessions are given up, the children are taken out of school, and the community's leader begins making every decision for the family. Camille resists and tries to protect her siblings. Sarah Suco writes and directs, in her first feature. Camille Cottin plays the mother, Eric Caravaca the father, Céleste Brunnquell plays Camille. Suco wrote this from her own childhood. She has spoken openly about spending ten years in a comparable community with her family, and much of the detail comes directly from that. What the film does is refuse to present the group as a threat from the start. The first section is warm and the people are well meaning; control is established step by step, and you notice as late as the family does. Camille's circus training is the counterweight: the one area where she controls her own body, and precisely what the community will not leave to her. Who it is for: viewers who like French drama about domestic pressure and the mechanics of a sect. Who it is not for: the psychological pressure on children is shown in detail and is uncomfortable to watch, and the final section resolves quickly.