Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront (2009)

Directed by: Lea Fehner | 120 minutes | drama | Actors: Farida Rahouadj, Reda Kateb, Pauline Etienne, Marc Barbé, Vincent Rottiers, Julien Lucas, Delphine Chuillot, Dinara Drukarova, Michaël Erpeling, Fanny Avram, Edmonde Franchi, Françoise Guiol, Oumria Mouffok, Zohra Benali, Fouzia Lyamini, Naser Belhaoues, Kader Mohamed, Magalie Contreras, Brice Kazian, Gertrude Hubert

You just have to dare. With her first feature film, director and screenwriter Léa Fehner shows that she is familiar with the complex work of Mexicans Iñárritu and Arriaga (’21 Grams’, ‘Babel’). Although it is not exactly a mosaic film, ‘Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront’ has three parallel narratives and deals with major themes such as Love, Death and Redemption. Moreover, there is the overarching theme of the lonely city dweller and his hunger for contact. These are themes that we also know from Iñárritu and that resulted in masterly cinema.

‘Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront’ is not masterful, but for a debut it is a surprisingly strong and confident film. Although it lasts more than two hours, the film does not bore for a second. The storylines alternate in time and the pace is fast from the start. The few times the film threatens to get stuck, a new character pops up or the story takes an unexpected turn. The alternation of static camera work (Zohra’s story) and nervous handheld shots also keeps the viewer focused.

The greatest strength lies in the lifelike characters and the sharp character drawing. Often one scene says it all about the character: how the cheerful Laure disappears headfirst into the (opened) car window of her friends, how the damaged Stéphane cringes at his wife’s fits of rage, how the grieving Zohra strokes the clothes of her deceased son. They are morally ambivalent characters, who use other people for their own business, no matter how noble their own business may be. Despite that ambivalence, they are characters who get under your skin and who you start to care about. Those characters are also strongly played, with a starring role for Pauline Etienne as Laure.

The only problem with ‘Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront’ is that the plot and plot elements are not always believable. The plot relies too much on coincidences, the kind where someone leaves a bag lying around from which another fishes crucial information. Also, the credibility of the characters is occasionally sacrificed to the progress of the story. Moreover, the story about Stéphane and his doppelganger is not very convincing from the start.

It is to be hoped that the young Léa Fehner will fully rely on her psychological insight for the next film and pull the plot less forcefully. ‘Qu’un seul tienne et les autres suivront’ certainly raises expectations. And that may be even more true for Pauline Etienne, because her Laure won’t let you go so easily. Just like this strong debut.