A dangerous encounter weaves emotions throughout the Revoir Paris.  The film’s setup is structured, and the characters are people with everyday lives which change in the blink of an eye after a traumatic event. Revoir Paris had me thinking about what it feels like to have anxiety and feel scared after a harrowing experience. Director Alice Winocour tests the waters of inner emotions which make the film spellbinding and invigorating. The tragic event is continuously revisited due to clues linking back to the moments of terror.

The main character is Mia (played by Virginie Efira). She is a working-class woman in France who spends an evening at a restaurant in town. Things seem to be going smoothly until a catastrophic and disturbing terrorist attack occurs. Mia’s survival leads her to find connections with others who also survived the same terror. Revoir Paris is a faithful experience about how individuals recover after a traumatic event.

The term “revoir” means to see again. Mia repeatedly sees and feels her trauma. The trauma is in-depth as are the frustrations and her unstable thinking as she struggles to recover from the terrorist attack. There is not much positive light to be seen in Revoir Paris.  From my perspective, the film is humanistic in revealing how a horrific episode can have such a lasting impact on people’s everyday life.

The tracing of Mia’s steps uncovers a trail of realizations. These discoveries play into her discussions with other victims from the same night. Mia talks with victims ranging from Sara (played by Maya Sansa), Vincent (played by Gregoire Colin), and Thomas (played by Benoit Magimel). The emotions experienced are different among the individuals. There is no consistency to how Sara, Vincent, or Thomas deals with their mental health after the terror which leads back to how Mia deals with it. Finding answers proves to be a real struggle as Mia’s story unfolds and the emotions keep growing. Revoir Paris is enthralling in the darkest and most mentally overwhelming way.

The moment of the attack stuck in my head as the film continued. I found myself asking questions. Was anyone a target of the attack? Was the terrorist trying to accomplish something? Did the terrorist have his own set of mental health problems? How much will the victims deal with the attack after surviving? That final question is repeatedly explored in the film. As Mia’s heightened emotions are played out all over the place, there is no easy way to move on with life.

Revoir Paris is one of the most disturbing, yet realistic experiences I have seen this year. It is a compelling film due to its realism. It also demonstrates that there are resources and critical steps to take after experiencing an upsetting event. Revoir Paris is a film in which the audience will repeatedly see what it’s like for individuals to overcome a horror and see that it is extremely challenging to just let something go when an experience in life is so overwhelming. Three out of four stars for Revoir Paris.