Exploring the life of an unyielding teen who defies conventional traditions, Swiss director Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (“On the Beach”) points to the confluence of apathy and tempered resistance in her debut feature “Silent Rebellion” ( À bras-le-corps”), which premiered in Venice and has been picked up by Wayna Pitch for France, with Imovision pouncing on rights for Brazil.
Produced by Elena Tatti and Nicolas Wittwer at Switzerland’s Box Productions (“Home”), which will release the film in Switzerland in February 2026, and co-produced by Julie Esparbes at Belgium’s Hélicotronc (“Dalva”) and Emmanuelle Latourrette and Fabrice Préel-Cléach at France’s Offshore (“Naufragi”), the film looks to the past to assess the present.
Its narrative follows 15-year-old Emma (Lila Gueneau) as she endeavors to fulfil her dreams of becoming a nurse after rape by a bourgeois journalist leaves her pregnant. Amidst the judgement of her Protestant village, she attempts to carve out an uncertain but rewarding future while dealing with a neutral Switzerland’s mounting indifference to the inhumane treatment of those fleeing war-torn countries during WWII.
“What attracted me to Marie-Elsa’s proposal was her vision of a historical story told from a distinctly female perspective. Rather than focusing on a famous figure, she centers on an ordinary woman, who, faced with adversity, draws on her vitality and instinct for survival to resist injustice – both the injustice inflicted on her and the injustice she witnesses around her. The film poses questions that remain urgent today: How should we take a stand?,” Tattii told Variety.
Wayna Pitch CEO, Jonathan Musset, added: “When we discovered ‘Silent Rebellion,’ we thought about other recent European historical feature films made by women directors. All of them have in common the fact that they’re giving a voice back to young female characters that the main historical narrative has silenced. ‘Silent Rebellion’ has this beautiful, strong character embodied by Lila Gueneau and a lot of technical qualities, like its photography, so precise and pure. Its sobriety gives space for the emotion and the reflection to unfold.”
Studious and headstrong, Emma represents the struggle that young women have faced for centuries. Unable to strike out on their own, their lives decided for them by society’s unruly edicts. In so much that things have changed, the film posits that they’ve largely stayed the same, with women still expected to fall into marriage and motherhood rather than towards fulfillment of a career or a life lived solely in service to themselves. With Emma’s future half-parsed, and that motherhood reluctantly on her horizon, she refuses to be tamed or kept, and morphs into a loving matriarch just the same.
“Emma has faith in life, a deep understanding of certain possibilities of existence and senses its sacred meaning,” Sgualdo remarked. “This goes beyond questions of financial or moral independence; at the core, she seeks to stay alive, not to fade away. She clings to her faith in life and fights to keep this flame burning, for without it she would lose all meaning and die, vanish, deceive herself and erase herself. ”
“Silent Rebellion” is also a rumination on stoic detachment. The project, written by Sgualdo and Nadine Lamari (“Little Indi”), depicts a mountainside border town that’s washed its hands of its duty to help refugees fleeing certain death. Each man for himself, while Emma and the town’s priest remain the only pillars of morality — a weight that drives the once-steady man of faith to his breaking point by mid-script to drive that hypocrisy home.
News channels with noise that litters the scene are feverishly traded for upbeat music chosen to lift spirits rather than allow the group to sit with the stark reality for more than a handful of minutes. Any talk of the gravity of the situation is met with a helpless eye-roll, a quick change of topic.
“I always wonder how to avoid preaching to the converted. How can we influence our politicians? People in power? Where does their true sense of justice and dignity lie?,” Sgualdo pondered. “While researching this film, I realized just how few decision-making processes and conflict management have evolved since that time. It’s one of my dearest wishes to change the minds of those who are ignorant of reality, especially those who have decision-making power.”
She continued, “Setting the story 80 years ago allows us to see that many of the issues it raises are still unresolved today. Perhaps the film will give viewers a new sense of courage – the courage to speak up, assert themselves, and create change in their daily lives. That’s what the film is really about: Trying to do what we can, within our reach, to preserve our dignity in the face of a society that is increasingly dehumanized.”
Grégoire Colin, Thomas Doret, Aurélia Petit, Sandrine Blancke, Sasha Gravat Harsch, Tamara Semelet, Cyril Metzger, Lievke Bartel, Aurelien Patouillard and Etienne Fague round out the razor sharp cast.
Esteemed international distribution outfit Salaud Morisset handles world sales, with François Morisset proclaiming of the project — which he boarded in its infancy, reuniting him with Sgualdo, “I’m extremely proud to be working on ’Silent Rebellion.’ Like many great period films, it speaks directly to our own time. Marie-Elsa has crafted a film of remarkable beauty and strength — it will resonate deeply with arthouse audiences who seek bold cinema and new voices. At the same time, we’ve already seen how powerfully younger generations connect to Emma’s journey: They are hungry for stories of everyday heroes who challenge the world around them. This dual appeal makes the film both timeless and urgently relevant.”
“Silent Rebellion” sees its French Premiere in Competition at the prestigious Arras Film Festival, which runs Nov. 7-16, following a buzzed-about journey through Europe. The film touts prior sales to Italy via Trent Film and Benelux through Amsterdam’s Imagine Film Distribution.