Custody, opening in L.A. on July 13th, in New York on June 29th and going wide in August, is a heartbreakingly sad story of a boy caught between two at-war-getting-divorced parents.
On a par with Loveless, the Russian Cannes Competition film in 2017 and Oscar nominated for Best Foreigh Language Film, each of the boys, sentient but powerless, is used as a pawn. This film almost exceeds the threshold of bearable pain, so painful is to watch the father take his rages out on his son.
The boy’s (Thomas Gioria) acting is superlative. This is his first film but next year you will be able to see him in Adoration.
Denis Ménochet playing the father is also outstanding and is 100% hateful. I moaned in agony for the boy in every other scene. The father cajoles his child, blackmails his child, threatens him with force, is mecurial, cruel and unresponsive, and then acts nice to lure him into his traps.
The boy is trying to guard his mother from the father. I did not know if I could sit through the pain the boy feels and is so incapable of pushing back against the abnormal hypocrisy of his father.
Even the mother makes the child lie so her parents will not know of the father’s brutality and everyone in the family, the maternal and paternal grandparents and the boy’s sister display interwoven pathologies across generations.
Similar in theme the Yo te doy mis ojos, (Take My Eyes) a 2003 Spanish story of domestic violence directed by Icíar Bollaín starring Luis Tosar, this film inflamed me with such an empathetic reaction, I literally had to sit until the long and silent rolling end credits were over to get myself together again. And I was not the only one in the audience feeling so deeply affected.
Written and directed by Xavier Legrand who won the Coming Soon Award at this year’s COLCOA film festival, he also won the Silver Lion for Best Director and the Lion of the Future award for Best Debut Film at last year’s Venice Film Festival. CUSTODY screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where Legrand was named as one of 10 directors to watch in 2018 by Variety.
Previously, Legrand was nominated for an Academy Award for his short film Just Before Losing Everything. Custody is a companion piece to his short.
A broken marriage leads to a bitter custody battle with an embattled son at the center in this domestic thriller that will keep audiences guessing and leave them with their hearts in their throats. Miriam and Antoine Besson have divorced, and Miriam (Léa Drucker, THE MAN OF MY LIFE and IN MY SKIN) is seeking sole custody of their son Julien (Thomas Gioria) to protect him from a father she claims is violent. Antoine (Denis Ménochet, ASSASIN’S CREED and GLORIOUS BASTERDS) pleads his case as a scorned dad whose children have been turned against him by their vindictive mother. Unsure who is telling the truth, the appointed judge rules in favor of joint custody. A hostage to the escalating conflict between his parents, Julien is pushed to the edge to prevent the worst from happening. Director Xavier Legrand has cited KRAMER VS. KRAMER, THE SHINING, and THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER as inspirations for CUSTODY.
Written and directed by Xavier Legrand. Produced by Alexandre Gavras. Starring Denis Ménochet, Léa Drucker, Thomas Gioria, Mathilde Auneveux and Mathieu Saïkaly.
Kino Lorber is releasing Custody in L.A. July 13 at the Laemmle’s Monica Theatre. It opens in N.Y. on June 29th at the IFC Center.
International sales agent Celluloid Dreams has sold virtually every territory worldwide.
**WINNER | SILVER LION, VENICE FILM FESTIVAL**
**WINNER | COMING SOON AWARD, COLCOA FRENCH FILM FESTIVAL**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION | RENDEZ-VOUS WITH FRENCH CINEMA**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION | PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION | TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL**
“Impressive. A razor-sharp, genuinely harrowing story. A master class in tension modulation and psychological entrapment, made all the more unsettling by its relentless linearity.”
-Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
“A nerve-shredding domestic drama. The most dazzling fusion of grim social realism and giddy genre thrills since Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”
-Paul O’Callaghan, Sight & Sound
Running time: 93 minutes
Language: French with English subtitles
Not Rated
Running time: 93 minutes
Language: French with English subtitles
Not Rated
