Such a Resounding Silence

In 2023, a national reckoning around child sexual abuse was already underway in France when film star Emmanuelle Béart (Manon of the Springs, 8 Women, Mission: Impossible) publicly revealed she is an incest survivor. Choosing both first-person and ensemble documentary voices, Béart creates a powerful platform for fellow fighters to challenge the insidious shame that arises from incest. Along with co-director Anastasia Mikova, two other women and a man, Béart points the finger at the laws and social taboos of a country where a child is sexually abused every three minutes. Reluctant to include her own story at first, Béart powerfully remonstrates: “the silence—which is first imposed by the person who rapes you—this silence makes a terrible noise within you and takes all kinds of forms” in this stirring and personal critique.