HER NAME IS SABINE
aka ELLE S'APPELLE SABINE

Year: 2007
UK: ICA Films
Cast: Sabine Bonnaire
Director: Sandrine Bonnaire
Country: France
Language: French (English subtitles)
UK: 85 mins
UK Certificate: 12A contains strong language and mental illness theme
UK Release Date: 20 June 2008 (Limited Release)
UK Distributor

Synopsis

French actress Sandrine Bonnaire makes her directorial debut with this documentary about her younger sister Sabine. Now 38, Sabine's autism went undiagnosed for decades and whose vivacious character was almost destroyed.

The film uses home-movie footage from the past 20 years as well as new material filmed at a special home where Sabine now lives following five years in a joyless institution. The contrast between the fun-loving girl from years ago and the dispirited woman a few years later is terrible and moving.

Winner: 2007 Cannes FIPRESCI Award (The International Federation of Film Critics)
Audience Award: Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur, 2007
Official selection: Vienna International Film Festival 2007

About the director

Sandrine Bonnaire is one of France's best known actresses. She was born the 31 May 1967 in Gannat, and as a promising young French actress garnered acclaim for her very first screen performance, in Maurice Pialat's a NOS AMOURS (1983). Sandrine Bonnaire won a French best actress Cesar for her role as the aimless vagrant in Agnes Varda's haunting VAGABOND (1985) and turned in acclaimed performances in Pialat's UNDER SATAN'S SUN (1987), Patrice Leconte's stylish thriller MONSIEUR HIRE (1989) and Claude Chabrol's A JUDGMENT IN STONE (1995).