Up to custody

Jusqu'à la garde - Film - Xavier Legrand - 2017

A couple is in the process of divorcing. Their eldest daughter will soon be of age. The youngest, aged 11, refuses to go to his father's house, to the point of somatizing every time he sees him. Supported by her lawyer, the mother asks for sole custody of the boy. The family court refused. The father now has carte blanche to continue tyrannizing his family through joint custody. The film demonstrates with force and tension the paradox that justice often considers that a violent spouse can at the same time be a good parent. The child, used as an instrument of vengeance and retaliation by the father, pays the price: hypervigilance, anxiety, sleep disorders. Tension mounts as the abusive spouse's parental rights are validated, and he extends them to his ex-wife. This film brutally depicts what coercive control is, its traumatic consequences on children, how it continues despite the separation of the spouses, and how this violence can lead to feminicide. Some scenes may provoke reliving for victims of domestic violence. A powerful, relentless film that paints a chilling portrait of coercive control and domestic violence that continues even after separation.

• Film