Happening

155 minutes • 2021 • 7.4

Happening is a strong and uncompromising adaptation of one of France's most important contemporary writers, Annie Ernaux's retrospective of her own experiences with abortion, when it was still prohibited in France in the 1960s.

Anne Duchesne (Anamaria Vartolomei) is a smart, young student who discovers that she is pregnant. Suddenly, her life seems to take a completely different turn than she had hoped and expected. The judgmental looks are not long in coming, either from male doctors or close friends, when Anne examines the possibilities of having an abortion. She risks a prison sentence, and ultimately her life, by doing so.