A Radiant Girl / Film School Radio interview with Director Sandrine Kiberlain and Actor Rebecca Marder

Paris, summer 1942. Irene (Rebecca Marder, nominated for a 2023 César for Best Female Newcomer for her performance), is a vibrant 19-year-old aspiring actress without a care in the world. She is honing her passion for the theater, rehearsing for the entrance exam to the coveted Conservatory, making new friends and discovering love, without realizing that time is running out in Nazi-occupied France, as her close-knit family is watching. In turns enchanting and devastating, Ms. Kiberlain’s drama, which she also wrote, is not a traditional Holocaust narrative, but a unique coming-of-age tale about the freedoms of youth amidst a changing world, anchored by a star-making performance by Ms. Marder "which more than delivers on the luminous promise of the English title" (Screen Daily). Partly inspired by Ms. Kiberlain’s own family story, the film shows the dangers of complacency in the face of fascism, as well as moments of beauty that are possible even under the hardest of circumstances. Director Sandrine Kiberlain and Actor Rebecca Marder joins us for a conversation on the relevance of a story about isms - authoritarianism, fascism, anti-semitism, collaborating as director / actor and actor and finding the right balance tonally in a story that is guardedly optimistic about the aspirations of a young women as her world comes face-to-face with genocide. For more go to: filmmovement.com/a-radiant-girl