France, 1963. Anne is a bright young student with a promising future ahead of her. But when she falls pregnant, she sees the opportunity to finish her studies and escape the constraints of her social background disappearing. With her final exams fast approaching and her belly growing, Anne resolves to act, even if she has to confront shame and pain, even if she must risk prison to do so…
"What path is there for a young woman faced with a clandestine abortion? Often, we can only guess at the response. When I decided to adapt Annie Ernaux’s L’événement, I tried to find a way to capture the physical nature of the experience, to take into account the fleshly dimension of the journey. My hope is that the experience transcends the period of the story and the gender barrier. The fate of the young women who have had recourse to such operations is risky, intolerable. All I did was to look for the simple gesture, the essence that could convey it." (Audrey Diwan)