Sylvia is a social worker with a simple, uneventful life: a daughter, her job, her AA meetings. Her tranquil existence will be interrupted by meeting Saul, who will follow her home after a high school reunion. A door on her past is opened and, with a lively New York as the background, the two will fall in love and will be forced to face the tragedy of dementia and of past traumas. Michel Franco is back in Venice with a poignant study on memory, love, identity, and trust. The Mexican director’s second American film stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard.
A visionary producer, screenwriter, and director, Michel Franco’s first feature film was 2009 Daniel y Ana, a social thriller on clandestine porn production in Mexico. Franco was at Cannes with Después de Lucía in 2012 (Best Direction) and with Chronic in 2015 (Best Screenplay). In 2017, the jury assigned him the Un Certain Regard award for Las hijas de Abril. In 2015, Michel Franco produced Lorenzo Vigas’ Desde allá, Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In 2020, his mind-blowing Nuevo Orden earned the Jury’s Grand Prix.
