Claire Maillard

A summer night, in a red house with blue shutters bordered by the forest. We hear the river flowing from the room where Sister, four years old, wakes Brother, ten years old. Because she has decided: tonight they will go swimming. Through the open window, the two children slip into the darkness. They slip between flowers, brambles, trees... And finally it is the water, the reflection of the stars, their two bodies at rest. But in the distance the storm is rumbling. It is already necessary to return. Brother and Sister go hand in hand. Suddenly, Brother disappears. Sister chases him, runs out of breath, spins around, despairs. Is it a game of hide-and-seek? A trick of the forest? Or is it her memory which, years later, plays a cruel trick on her ?

In 1919, in a small town under the crushing heat of summer, a war hero is held prisoner in an abandoned barracks. Outside, his mangy dog barks night and day. Not far off in the countryside, an extraordinarily intelligent young woman works the land, waiting and hoping. A judge whose principles have been sorely shaken by the war is coming to sort out this case of which it is better not to speak.