L'Adieu à la nuit (2019)
Directed by André Téchiné

Film Review

For his 26th feature director André Techiné turns his critical regard to one of the burning subjects of our time - Islamist radicalisation - and uses this as the motor for an intense psychological drama that, whilst compelling, raises far more questions than it answers.  With France still deeply traumatised by a spate of horrific Islamist terrorist attacks in recent years, radicalisation is a hot topic and it's no surprise that many writers and filmmakers have felt the need to deal with it in their work.

Already, there have been two notable French films on the subject - Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar's Le Ciel attendra (2016) and Mohamed Ben Attia's Mon cher enfant (2018) - and Techiné's own modest contribution to the debate, L'Adieu à la nuit, will doubtless help to inspire further reflection on just why a generation of young people are so willing to give up their lives and engage in terrorist atrocities orchestrated by the most dangerous brand of religious fanatics.

Techiné was inspired to make his film after reading David Thomson's 2014 bestselling book Les Français jihadistes, which contained some shockingly candid interviews with young French people who have been recruited to the Jihadist cause.  The great schisms that this book reveals - between the generations, between the comfortably off and those living on the margins, is succinctly encapsulated by Techiné in his film through the ambiguous relationship between a sixty-something grandmother - Catherine Denueve in her eighth Techiné film - and her adolescent grandson - Kacey Mottet-Klein, who featured in the director's previous work Quand on a 17 ans (2016).

The incredibly strained relationship between the two principal characters (we sense a disconnect from the moment they first appear on screen together) gives the film its emotional and dramatic thrust, via which its authors drive home some valid observations on the origins of radicalisation - in particular that it is a product of a fractured society in which individuals no longer engage with one another in a deep and meaningful way.

A broken society (stemming from the failure of elected goverments to restrain the excesses of the rich and powerful) inevitably means broken families, and broken families mean youngsters falling foul of methods of persuasion from unscrupulous merchants of hate who prey on their vulnerability, romantic ideals and burning desire to hit back.

The fact that the brainwashed adolescent in Techiné 's film is an amiable white male from an apparently normal French background reminds us that it isn't just brown-skinned immigrants who are at risk of being led astray by Islamic fundamentalism.  The threat is far greater than the populist Muslim-hating bigots will have us believe.

By melding together several disparate genres - intimate family drama, tension-filled thriller, warped fairytale and astute social commentary, Téchiné constructs a compelling and innovative film that must surely rate as one of his most distinctive and impactful, although it falls somewhat short of his previous masterpieces - Les Roseaux sauvages (1994) and Les Témoins (2007).

L'Adieu à la nuit certainly has no difficulty holding onto our attention and emotions (with such gripping central performances it could hardly do otherwise), but it is somewhat lacking in depth and struggles to come up with something fresh to say on its grim subject matter. The only character who feels true to her bones is Alex's down-to-earth girlfriend (played by Oulaya Amamra, the star of Houda Benyamina's 2016 film Divines); her reaction to her boyfriend's radicalisation is more viscerally charged and convincing than that of the more morally dubious grandmother portrayed by Deneuve.

Whilst Téchiné and his co-screenwriter Léa Mysius succeed in steering the film well away from cliché and trite emotionality, you are left with the impression that they are unwilling, or unable, to engage with its central theme as fully as it deserves.  The three main characters are well-developed, believable individuals, but they are for all that blatant ciphers too consciously slotted into a far too simplistic analysis of an inordinately complex phenomenon.

Admittedly, there are some powerfully moving moments and, to its credit, the film does occasionally throw out the odd photon to illuminate its appallingly black subject (no doubt particles of light snatched from David Thomson's revelatory tome).  But L'Adieu à la nuit still leaves us staring into the abyss, desperately seeking some vague sliver of insight into the demonic craze that has taken hold of so many young people and turned them into the deadliest of weapons.  The night remains as dark as ever, perhaps darker still.

Film Synopsis

When her teenage grandson Alex comes to visit her, Muriel is over the moon.  It seems he is about to head off to Canada to start a new life, but before he goes he wants to spend a few peaceful days with the one relative he is still on good terms with.  Muriel's initial elation soon turns to concern as she notices something very strange about Alex's behaviour.  Instinctively, she knows he is harbouring a secret.  How will she react to the news that her seemingly well-adjusted teen grandson is about to leave for Syria, to become a Jihadist fighter...?