HAPPENING (L’ÉVÉNEMENT) World Cinema

Following the theatrical screening, watch a special conversation with director Audrey Diwan moderated by AFI FEST Programmer Julia Kipnis.

In Audrey Diwan’s Golden Lion award-winning feature adapted from Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel, Anamaria Vartolomei delivers a breakout performance as Anne, a young woman studying literature in 1960s France. While on the path to sexual liberation, Anne discovers that she is pregnant – an occurrence her friends liken to a death sentence in a country where abortion is stigmatized and illegal. Determined not to let her life and academic ambitions be derailed by an unexpected pregnancy, Anne desperately searches in secret for a solution to her predicament. Anchored by supporting turns from Sandrine Bonnaire (VAGABOND) and Luàna Bajrami (PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE), this poignant and timely film does not shy away from the brutal realities many women must endure when left without a choice. –Julia Kipnis