Description:
A film that explores the limits of romantic commitment, acceptance and lingering hope, The Restless portrays a couple struggling to make it work in the face of illness.
Damien, Leila and their son Amine are spending carefree holidays at the seaside. However much Le?la may love Damien, however much they might form a nucleus with their son Amine, the lives of this family of three are not an idyll. Because Damien's problems escalate with insomnia and sudden emotional outbursts until doctors diagnose him with a bipolar disorder. Returning from hospital, he resumes work, painting abstract pictures and restoring old furniture, while Leila faces a difficult, seemingly impossible task: living with a person who, despite his medication, is occasionally just a shadow of the man she loves.
"Initially, the script was inspired by my experiences with my bipolar father. He wanted to be a photographer and indeed was one for a while, but he didn't really fulfil his dream. He left me with a great admiration for portrait artists in particular, and right from the start, I was thinking of Julien Magre's work, hoping to find at least a little of that extraordinary simplicity." (Joachim Lafosse)