In Greek, "Zoe" means life that is renewed. For her new feature film, actress and director Julie Delpy tells, with freedom and audacity, the story of a mother ready to do anything to find her child. The film is confusing, by the subject it deals with, and the different genres it explores. Initially "simple" marital chronicle, the story takes us crescendo towards science fiction. My Zoé is the crazy bet of a resurrection. It addresses something taboo (that we can not reveal …), which seems very far from us but perhaps not so much. Because from science fiction to anticipation, there is only one step…

Chronicle of a separation

It all starts with a "classic" story of breakup and child custody. Isabelle, a geneticist, followed James to Berlin and they separated. She has fallen in love with another man, has decided to revive her career, and James can't accept it. Jealous, bad in his skin, he blames her for a separation he did not want. Out of a spirit of vengeance, he leads a hard life for her to obtain custody of their granddaughter Zoe. A traumatic experience, that Julie Delpy lives with her own son at the time of writing. And that explains the realism of situations and feelings. "In a way, this scenario recreates this situation a little bit and pushes it to its climax at the end, with this idea of a new child that my character completely appropriates." Then a tragedy occurs, which turns Isabelle and James' lives into horror. Without saying anything to James, Isabelle will make a crazy decision to counter fate. We can say no more, at the risk of revealing the most confusing, and interesting, part of the film. My Zoé is about this triangular relationship that forms a couple with their only child. When the couple is torn apart, the child becomes in spite of himself an emotional issue, blackmail and guilt. A bitter observation that the director makes: "There is something very cruel to blame the other in a relationship, especially when it comes to a child. James does not give Isabelle any respite from this point of view." The drama, which first reunites the couple in a common pain, brings back the resentments and the words become harsh, without return. One of the central sequences shows James and Isabelle confronting each other in an enclosed space that evokes a jar. The scene is conceived as a choreography: "One attacks the other, who goes further and reaches the point of no return […]. I thought of this scene as a dance and as a piece of music. There had to be movements, variations."

Between reality and science fiction

The construction in three acts, in the manner of a Greek tragedy, places realism more and more at a distance. The first act deals with a fairly classic reality; the second, a painful ordeal; And the third moves away from our bearings to explore, through a "light science fiction", a metaphysical but plausible dimension. The story then becomes singular, destabilizing, addressing the taboo subject of genetics and the possibility of transcending human nature. "We are lulled by the idea that we have to accept the human condition, the idea of aging and the idea of death, but this acceptance has always bothered me. Being creative, I think, is a way to escape that." Genetics fascinates Julie Delpy and to write My Zoé, she is based on a lot of research.

"I have consulted countless scientific books to saturate my brain! And I see that some scientists who see the film like it very much. Many were delighted that a film finally dared to confront such issues."

One footage showing women in their sixties (or more), pregnant and radiant in a doctor's office, is particularly uncomfortable. "We confine ourselves to the absurd, because the society in which we live is! Our society has reached a degree of total madness, and science is nothing compared to politics and financial interests… ". The director chose not to put on music so as not to influence the emotions of the spectators, and to allow epidermal reactions. The climate of the film is closely linked to the work of sound, and especially those of everyday and urban life. As the narrative progresses, the sounds become heavier. The birds almost disappear from the second act, and towards the end there are almost no sounds, because the senses eventually disappear.

A committed film

My Zoé is a bold film that intertwines genres , from chronicle to science fiction, through psychological thriller or even fable. It's never completely science fiction because reality is always there, in the background.

"I didn't want to go strange. I wanted us to be able to consider this reality: deep down, maybe there is not even anything that is science fiction… It's almost anticipatory and it's worrying. The question this film raises is: what is consciousness?" 

Committed because he tackles a sensitive issue, but also by his feminism fully assumed. Julie Delpy's film deals with infinite maternal tenderness, but also with certain destructive couple relationships. "James could love Isabelle if he could totally control her. […] My Zoe is about the control that some men need to exist in their relationship." Throughout the first part of the film, James tries to crush Isabelle as a mother. "In a way, she will revolt and regain her identity as a mother entirely, but not in a conformist way!" The English actor Richard Armitage perfectly embodies a complex James, a mixture of fragility, malaise, cruelty and instability. "My" Zoé refers to the idea that this child will become Isabelle's. "There is something deeply feminist about this film: Isabelle makes decisions for herself. With all that is currently being played out in the United States around abortion, it is certain that this title and this story resonate particularly… ". Julie Delpy wrote My Zoé like her other films, with the heart and putting a lot of herself.

"There's a big unconscious part to my writing. I write my screenplays in a passionate way and this one, in particular, I wrote it organically, very quickly. Then I realized that I had recreated a child and a new form of motherhood."

Cosmopolitan

Shot in Berlin and Moscow, My Zoé is a cosmopolitan film, with actors of various nationalities. "I don't know anything else! I was raised in Paris, in the middle of artists from various backgrounds. My parents worked in avant-garde theatre with people from all over the world, so I grew up in an extremely mixed culture." The role of the Moscow-based doctor is played by the German Daniel Brühl. "I wanted a foreign actor so that we understood that he had escaped from his country, because in the European Union there are many limitations in genetic research." It is also partly thanks to him that My Zoé was able to be made: "He co-produced the film and struggled to find its financing as soon as he read the script". For Akil, Isabelle's lover, Julie Delpy imagined a character foreign to Europe, who carries with him the traumas of a country in conflict. This explains, in part, that he understands Isabelle's pain better than the others. Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri perfectly embodied this idea. The doctor's wife is played by Englishwoman Gemma Arterton. Lyndsay Duncan, who plays Isabelle's mother, is also a British actress. "Everyone told me that the resemblance between us was uncanny. […] We are a very believable mother-daughter couple, and Lyndsay perfectly grasped the whimsical part of her character." Little Sophia Ally, who plays Zoé, is incredibly natural and sensitive. My Zoé by Julie Delpy – UK, Germany, France, USA – 2021 – 102 minutes – With Julie Delpy, Sophia Ally, Daniel Brühl, Gemma Aterton, Saleh Bakri, Richard Armitage, Lyndsay Duncan. Released Wednesday, June 30. Check out the trailer. https://youtu.be/4w6xmalPi1M Outings: Check out Teddy's review.