My buddy found this movie while searching for Nordic actors after seeing the picture Ragnarok. I was keen to see this picture due to the two main actors Juliette Binoche and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. I personally didn't look at the plot description provided on Netflix and as a result had no idea what to expect.
This film tells of a professional news photographer named Rebecca (played by Juliette Binoche)and her challenges/struggles to keep her family together while also being happy with herself. The challenges/struggles stem from her being a photographer in war zones throughout the world and her family constantly being under strain for fear of losing her. After she gets injured following a suicide bomber (the film does a remarkable job of conveying how she feels by showing a reversed image of her underwater), her husband Marcus (played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) determines that he can't be with her anymore and that as soon as she is well he is taking their two daughters Steph (played by Lauryn Canny) and Lisa (played by Adrianna Cramer Curtis) and leaving her. Steph is a teenager and Lisa appears to be about 10 years of age.
Rebecca is naturally disturbed at the prospect of losing her family to her job so she quits. She determines to focus on her family as well as getting well. As she struggles with trying to fit in to the normalcy of her family's lives, she is faced with dilemmas and temptations that revolve around her work versus her family. She is a talented photographer who has gained an excellent reputation for her work and her choice of where she works. As such, people and businesses including her former employers are keen to ask her to take on photography projects that involve taking pictures in war-torn areas for publication in news and to raise awareness about troubled areas in our world.
She is further challenged when her own daughter Steph pleads for a chance to go with her to refugee camps in Africa to take photos for a school project. After things go horribly wrong, Rebecca is faced with the darkness that her actions have led to and what she is going to do to try to fix them. Meanwhile her family is forced to make a decision of whether or not they will continue to be there for her/love her even if she chooses to continue going to war-torn areas to take photos for publication.
This was a great film. It is really eye-opening to many things I think including the lives and struggles of those kinds of photographers as well as their respective subjects. It gives some possible insight as to why people do the things that they do whether it is regarding photographers or just everyday ordinary people or people from different cultures. It is thought-provoking with subtly powerful performances. A great story. My friend didn't care for the ending but honestly I couldn't think of a more true way to end the film. Mind you I would have loved to see a less open ended ending but this ending felt more appropriate given the subject matter, circumstances, and characters.
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