To Be Loved By Whom

This is a piece of dramatic fiction resting on a subtle balance between social realism and highly stylized theatrical directing. In her first film, Emily Barbelin depicts the lived experience of a bunch of sex workers in a microcosm ruled by male desires that form the pattern of their nights. These men are barely seen, for in fact they are fleeting figures, either sleeping or caught in violent frenzies. In a voice-over, a woman calls out to some faraway mother, as a wintertime landscape is passing by from the window of a train, echoing the words.