While we can’t choose our family, we can decide who we want to spend our time with. In this sense, close friendships are often stronger than blood ties. They have to be. Your family is always your family, no matter what, but people come and go over a lifetime. However, when there’s a special platonic intimacy between two people it can be almost impossible to break. This seems particularly the case for women. The Braves celebrates this companionship.
Alma (Déborah Lukumuena) is a nail technician. Margot (Souheila Yacoub) is a waitress. These best of friends both dream of becoming actors. When they conspire to secure the lead and understudy roles respectively in an exciting new play, it seems like their ambitions might just come true. As rehearsals begin in earnest, Margot soon suspects that there’s something not quite right with her dearest pal.
The Braves is a heart-wrenching drama about the close bonds of friendship and the importance of following your dreams. Whilst the story is perhaps slight, the acting certainly isn’t. Both Lukumuena and Yacoub give full-blooded performances and this is what powers Anaïs Volpé’s film. The love that they have for each other provides the beating heart of The Braves. It’s a film which is full of energy, joy and tears.
The Braves screens at Glasgow Film Festival.
