Synopsis
The Names of Love (Le Nom des gens, 2010) is a French tragicomedy you can watch online on iFILM. Bahia Benmahmoud has a peculiar theory of politics: the surest way to flip a right-wing opponent is to sleep with him. By her own account, the success rate is high.
Bahia is a whirlwind leftist activist, daughter of an Algerian father and a French mother, with no taboo she won't barrel straight through. Arthur Martin is a cautious forty-something who studies bird epidemics and treats surprises as a personal affront. Hearing his blandly French surname, she decides he must be a closet reactionary and sets out to reform him. But the names hide other stories entirely — his family buried a wartime secret, hers rarely speaks of Algeria, and both carry weight nobody says out loud.
Director Michel Leclerc folds farce, politics and inherited trauma together so the laughs keep catching in your throat. Sara Forestier took home the César for Best Actress as Bahia, and the screenplay claimed the César for original writing too. It's for anyone who likes a French comedy that thinks about memory and identity, not just romance. Stream The Names of Love (2010) online on iFILM.
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