Few films pull heart strings like Anaïs Volpé’s The Braves (French: Entre les vagues). It’s as fun as it is funny, but behind the laughter lies an emotionally provocative tale supported by two career-defining performances.
Alma (Déborah Lukumuena) and Margot (Souheila Yacoub) are best friends looking to make their mark on Paris’ acting scene. After a risky ploy at an audition pays off, Alma is set to lead a high-profile production. Margot, coincidentally, is cast as her understudy. After a shared all-nighter, Alma collapses at their first rehearsal. Margot desperately searches for her, only to discover Alma has been hiding a terminal illness. Margot is split as her friend’s condition worsens. She struggles to perpetuate false hope for her friend while painfully taking her place in the theatre, an action Margot sees as an unforgivable betrayal.
Guided by the masterful eye of cinematographer Sean Price Williams, The Braves carries kinetic, organic energy in nearly every shot. The film moves from a pulsating, bombastic vibe to a somber and reflective pace seamlessly. Alma and Margot’s night out is a mosaic of bombastic quips, drunken revelry, and their inseparable bond. They’re the lifeblood of the city, and Paris’ streets are the veins they travel through.
The filmmaking is raw and visceral. It plays notes of Sean Baker and, more specifically, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Two Days, One Night. Even the production within the film — a monologue delivered from a recent Ellis Island arrival — conveys its own dramatic weight worthy of praise. Not that this should come as much of a surprise. After all, The Braves is just as much about acting as it is friendship. And the two concepts are inseparable for Alma and Margot.
Lukumuena and Yacoub’s power can’t be understated. The sincerity of their delivery, laughter, and painful crying is palpable. Lukumuena is especially fluid as Alma. Lukumuena captures every moment with fiery defiance and realism even while the character’s fun-loving spirit is quelled by her disease. And as the focus shifts to Yacoub, she portrays a somber agony, even on par with Marion Cotillard in some moments.
In fact, the film’s in-your-face portrayal of hardship and sisterhood is a sobering reminder of how little time we have with one another. The raw excitement of the film’s first movement doesn’t work against its tender and sobering conclusion. Instead, it makes it that much more precious. Volpé’s approach might be mistaken for sloppy, but that’s the point. It’s a reflection of life.
The only “criticism” of the film is that it departs so quickly. It’s easy to imagine a series, even a lifetime of Alma and Margot’s adventures — maybe crashing Cannes or drunkenly dancing down the Hollywood Walk of Fame. With any luck (the talent’s already there), Lukumuena and Yacoub will have that chance.
The Braves is raw, harrowing, and undeniably beautiful. It’s a celebration of friendship and a love letter to acting. People gravitate toward film festivals to catch tons of breath-taking cinema. But The Braves generates this level of excitement by itself.
The Braves is the winner of Best Narrative Feature at this year’s deadCenter Film Festival, and plays again Sunday, June 12 at 6:30 PM in the Chickasaw Nation Theater at Harkins Bricktown. Find more deadCenter 2022 coverage at The Cinematropolis.
