Think Good: Abuse and Faith Drama Debuts at Cannes
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- Think Good is a Franco‑Belgian drama directed by writer‑director Géraldine Nakache, starring Monia Chokri and Nils Schneider, and is slated for the non‑competitive Cannes Premiere sidebar this year.
- Gil (Monia Chokri), a camera assistant, meets businessman Jacques (Nils Schneider) in Dubai, where he sweeps her into a whirlwind romance that leads to marriage after she becomes pregnant and considers an abortion.
- Jacques enforces strict Orthodox Jewish observance, forbidding Gil from mentioning her pregnancy to Rabbi Daniel Cohen or the mikvah operator, and later installs surveillance cameras throughout their modern home to monitor her.
- Sylvestre Vannorenberghe serves as director of photography, using intimate close‑ups and the house’s glass‑and‑wood design to visually convey Gil’s feeling of confinement in what looks like an open space.
- Géraldine Nakache, raised in an Algerian Jewish family, weaves religious rituals into the narrative, and a sympathetic Dubai rabbi offers Gil wise counsel amid her marital turmoil.
- Cannes will feature the film in its Premiere sidebar, a platform that “fest and boutique distributors should think good about” for its tension‑filled storytelling and visual craft.
- Rabbi Daniel Cohen appears as the couple’s religious authority, whose presence underscores the clash between Gil’s casual observance and Jacques’s rigid adherence to faith.
Why it matters: The Cannes debut gives boutique distributors a market‑ready, socially resonant drama that spotlights domestic abuse within an Orthodox Jewish context, expanding representation while offering a visually striking, tension‑driven story that can attract both art‑house audiences and critics and may boost the film’s international sales.
