Event Description
On 6 May 2012, the day of the second round of the French presidential election, TV journalist Laetitia is late leaving home for her assignment covering the events at the headquarters of the Socialist Party on Rue de Solférino when her ex-husband turns up a day late to his court-appointed time to visit their two daughters.
There is not a moment of stillness or silence in La Bataille. The film tracks the journalist as she races around Paris interviewing voters on election day while also trying to keep her ex away from their two children. Laetitia Dosch’s performance as the exasperated mother is a real tour de force, complemented by the volatile energy of beloved French actor Vincent Macaigne in his role as the absentee father. Comedy in the form of a new easy-going boyfriend lightens the familial strife that otherwise dominates the screen, showing private disputes unfold in public spaces, and placing France’s many contradictions in sharp focus as life’s daily dramas are transformed into political treatises.
Director Justine Triet spent her early career documenting protests and political strife in her native land. A short documentary about Paris’s youth protests and her subsequent exposé on the 2007 presidential election cycle (Solférino) set the stage for this, her fiction debut from 2012. Triet went on to win the 2023 Palme D’Or and an Oscar in 2023 for Anatomy of a Fall.
English title: Age of Panic
Director: Justine Triet
Release date: 2012
Comedy
Running time: 1hr 33mins
Certificate: U
French with English subtitles
Show times
Sunday 15 February 2026, 3.15pm
Sunday 15 February 2026, 6.45pm
