A chilling autopsy of a dysfunctional artist couple, this feature film traces the trial of a German author (Sandra Hüller) accused at the assizes of the murder of her husband, in their chalet in the French Alps.

Born on July 17, 1978 in Fécamp, Justine Triet grew up in Paris: "My mother had a rather complex life, worked and raised three children, two of whom were not hers. My father was very absent," she told AFP.

At the age of 20, she entered the Beaux-Arts in Paris with the desire to become a painter. Then after two years of study, she abandoned painting to devote herself to video and editing.

In 2007, she directed her first documentary, "Sur place", a film on the fringes of the video, on the student demonstrations against the First Job Contract (CPE). In this dramatization of reality, she questions the place of the individual in the group.

Interested in the great moments of social tension, she shot a new documentary, "Solferino", during the presidential election of 2007, which will serve as a draft for her first feature film.

Directors crowned at Cannes © Cléa PÉCULIER, Sabrina BLANCHARD / AFP

It will be "The Battle of Solferino", which caused a sensation at Cannes in 2013, when it was programmed in a parallel selection of the Festival.

A year later, this "drama" with Laetitia Dosch and Vincent Macaigne, shot in full crowd on the day of the second round of the French presidential election, was nominated for the César 2014 in the category of best film.

"Don't sacrifice my ambitions"

This addict of TV series sees her reputation as a promising director consecrated with "Victoria" (2016), which makes nearly 700,000 admissions. Sentimental disarray, disillusionment with the absurdity of existence, all led by hilarious dialogues, "Victoria" is in the same vein as "The Battle".

The film, carried by Virginie Efira as a single mother and criminal lawyer in the middle of a nervous breakdown, was nominated five times for the 2017 César Awards, notably in the categories of best film and best actress.

German actress Sandra Hueller (l) and French director Justine Triet, in Cannes on May 22, 2023, before receiving the Palme d'Or for "Anatomy of a Fall" © CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP

Faithful to her interpreters, she finds Efira in 2019 in "Sibyl": the actress plays a novelist turned psychoanalyst and Triet surrounds herself with headliners of French cinema such as Adèle Exarchopoulos, Gaspard Ulliel and Niels Schneider. The film is in the official selection at Cannes.

Parisian, Justine Triet works with her family, co-writing "Anatomy of a fall" with her partner, the director and actor Arthur Harari, another figure of auteur cinema.

If she says she is "instinctive", her cinema, which leaves nothing to chance, is very thoughtful, "questioning a lot the relationships between men and women who are at the center of our lives today".

"I didn't wait until #MeToo for the person who lives with me to work almost more than I do with the children at home," she said. "I organize myself not to sacrifice my ambitions."

Cinema must contribute "to the societal revolution" feminist, she believes. "For a very long time, when I watched movies, I thought I was the boy, I identified with the male role," for lack of strong female roles.

Justine Triet and her companion and co-screenwriter Arthur Harari, after the Palme d'Or, at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, May 27, 2023, for "Anatomy of a Fall" © LOIC VENANCE / AFP

"We need stories made by women, made by women, judged by women. We are still very far from parity," adds the one who took advantage of the global platform offered by the award of her Palme d'Or to denounce the way in which the French government had "shockingly denied" the movement against the pension reform.

© 2023 AFP