Described by writer-director Marion Hill as “a contemporary love story” with “a deep devotion to the exploration and authentic depiction of nuance: nuance of character, relationship, culture, and personality,” “Ma Belle, My Beauty” sees an old romance taking on new life.
Lane (Hannah Pepper), Bertie (Idella Johnson), and Fred (Lucien Guignard) shared a polyamorous relationship in New Orleans before Lane unexpectedly vanished. In the years since, Bertie and Fred have gotten married and are living in the countryside of southern France. When Lane reenters the picture, Bertie is left wondering what exactly her ex wants.
“What are you doing here, Lane? You disappear, never call, and after two years later you just show up to see if I’m OK?” Bertie asks in a new trailer for the Sundance pic. “What the hell happened in your life that made you wind up here trying to get back into mine?”
“I wanted to tell a love story that was complicated, where the film doesn’t just end with ‘I love you’ and call it a day. Love is so much more complicated than that, and I am of a generation that is adamantly trying to strip ourselves of our learned expectations of love and monogamous partnership in favor of self-love, pursuit of pleasure, and radical communication,” Hill emphasized in an interview with us. “I wanted to show a love story driven by characters from within the communities that I am a part of.”
“Ma Belle, My Beauty” opens in theaters August 20.
