Céline and Ramón are a young binational couple who survived the terrorist attack at the Bataclan theatre on November 13, 2015. That harrowing night has left an open wound in their lives and they are struggling to regain a sense of normality and move beyond the identity they have been assigned as victims. While Céline has repressed her experience and thrown herself back into her old life, Ramón is stuck in the past. Both are grappling with the same question: how can they survive and move on as a couple?
Adapted from the testimony of Spanish Bataclan survivor Ramón Gonzalez, “One Year, One Night” is an intensely empathetic work. The therapeutic process of turning traumatic facts into fiction by committing them to paper has apparently helped this young man return to his life. Filmmaker Isaki Lacuesta’s intuitive direction embraces realism and subjectivity to tackle the central paradox in a wounded psyche: the need to break away from the reality of one’s memories in order to get a grip on reality. Thanks to astonishingly subtle yet explosively emotional performances from Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Noémie Merlant, these memories become ours, too. They make us feel that together, we can try to heal the collective wound.
