Sans toit ni loi (1985)
Directed by Agnès Varda

Film Review

One of Agnès Varda's most critically acclaimed films, Sans toit ni loi tells the moving story of a young woman who rejects society and civilisation so that she can pursue her dream of living entirely freely in the countryside she loves.  It is a brutally harsh and unsentimental film, depressingly pessimistic in that it shows such freedom can never be attained, no matter how determined the individual may be.  The danger of starvation, physical attack and illness rapidly quench the illusion of freedom which living rough may appear to offer.

The film is closer to a documentary than a traditional film drama, an approach which lends a shocking realism to the piece whilst distancing the spectator from the central character, the vagabond Mona, who remains elusive and enigmatic throughout.  Mona is played by Sandrine Bonnaire in what is a remarkable and moving performance, for which the actress was justly rewarded with a Best Actress César.  The film itself won the prestigious Golden Lion award at Venice in 1985.

Film Synopsis

One cold winter's morning, a farm worker is surprised to come across the body of a young woman in a ditch.  From her appearance - her clothes are torn and dirty, her hair and face filthy - it is at once apparent that she has been living rough for some time before she died.  In an attempt to identify the girl and learn where she came from, the disparate individuals who met her during the weeks before her death try to piece together her story.  Calling herself Mona, with all her worldly possessions stowed carefully away in her backpack, the girl struck up a friendship with a young man named David.  Together they spent several idyllic days together, smoking grass in an abandoned château, before parting company.

After spending some time with a community of shepherds, Mona resumed her cross-country wanderings and hooked up with a tree doctor, whom she assisted in her work for a while.  After this, the strange girl moved in with a friendly Tunisian vine pruner, but the latter's entourage soon become hostile towards her and she was forced to resume her travels.  Reaching a town, she gets herself blind drunk and falls prey to a gang of rowdy thugs.  Having lost everything she has, including her tent and her duvet, in a fire, Mona is forced to take refuge in a greenhouse.  Her time is fast running out...