Dirs: Charlotte Devillers and Arnaud Dufeys | Ulysse Goffin, Myriem Akheddiou, Natali Broods, Laurent Capelluto, Alilsa Laub, Adele Pinckaers | Belgium
A gut-punching opening scene throws us headlong into the action. A woman is battling to control her unruly son on a station platform in this high tension court room drama from Belgium directors Carlotta Devillers and Arnaud Dufeys premiering at this year’s Berlinale.
Told in long static takes in a stark monochrome setting of this Belgian legal institution We Believe You really conjures up the sheer desperation of a dysfunctional family of four in a fractious scenario that has ended up in front of a judge.
The mother works in a family planning centre and is well placed to understand all kinds of medical issues. Her little son, Etienne, is incontinent. Neither he nor his teenage sister Lila want to see their father, who is accused of abusing Étienne, who has been treated by a psychiatrist.
All the time the camera is focused on Madame Piron – it’s an extraordinary performance from Myriem Akheddiou who faces the camera full-on for most of the film’s modest running time as she runs the gamut of emotions, fraught with feeling from anger, temerity to anguish. Each party has a lawyer, and there’s also a counsel for the children, injecting a vein of light-hearted comedy in the final scene.
The couple both give their side of the story: he claims to be a good father. she says everything went wrong after the pregnancy when he starting disappearing at night. Then after Lila was born he came back again and they had Étienne. But once again he became disant and that’s when the children’s problems started. Now he has a baby with another woman. You make your own mind up about what happened. Fractious interviews unfold in front of the camera. The tension is palpable in this engrossing story of one family at war. @MeredithTaylor
BERLINALE FILM FESTIVAL 2025