YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a war veteran and former FBI agent. These days, he retrieves trafficked girls for money, and he does it with brutal violence. Between jobs, he lives with his elderly mother in New York, plagued by trauma, memories and thoughts of his own death. Then, for a large sum and total discretion, he is hired to rescue the abducted daughter of an influential client from a brothel – and finds himself caught in a web of corrupt power that unleashes a wave of violence. In “You Were Never Really Here” (United Kingdom/France 2017), Lynne Ramsay tells a thriller that mostly keeps the violence off screen.

The film is based on the novella by Jonathan Ames; Phoenix gained weight for the role, giving Joe a heavy, exhausted physicality. In competition at Cannes 2017, Ramsay won the award for best screenplay and Phoenix the award for best actor. In 2017, “You Were Never Really Here” was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in the Closing Night section.

Shown at the 2017 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2017 · Film Archive