Only idealists believe that quality is all that matters in order to be invited to compete at a major festival. Some films are invited because of proportionality, others because their directors have always been there – and others because they want to protect the local film industry. The latter may have been one reason why “The Birthday Party” was shown in competition at Cannes.
Because the third film by Léa Mysius, whose first two films were shown in side sections of the festival, is both her most conventional and weakest – a straightforward home invasion thriller with an often outrageous script. On the plus side, there are French acting stars like Hafsia Herzi and Benoît Magimel in the main roles – and an often fast-paced, suspenseful production that, at least at times, makes you forget the serious weaknesses.
Thomas (Bastien Bouillon), Nora (Hafsia Herzi) and daughter Ida (Tawba El Gharchi) have to stay particularly close to each other that night.
They don’t seem to fit together: the farmer Thomas (Bastien Bouillon), who gets up early to milk the cows, and his wife Nora (Hafsia Herzi), who works at a consulting company and earns the money that her husband spends on prostitutes. Her daughter Ida (Tawba El Gharchi) is often with her neighbor Cristina (Monica Bellucci), an artist who had a barn converted into a studio.
The remote idyll is destroyed on Nora’s birthday. Thomas has planned a surprise party. But he didn’t expect these guests either: Flo (Paul Hamy) and Bègue (Alane Delhaye) suddenly appear at the door, act threateningly and force everyone to join them in meeting their brother Franck (who was recently released from prison).Benoit Magimel) to wait. He’s obviously out for revenge. But to whom and for what?
The abysses remain unexplored
With her first two directing works, the unusual coming-of-age adventure “Ava” and the intricate fantasy drama “The Five Devils”, Léa Mysius established herself as an expert for original genre variations with a feminist touch. With “The Birthday Party”, the filmmaker, who is also a very successful screenwriter, is adapting a foreign material for the first time, namely the bestseller “Histoires De La Nuit – Stories of the Night”. Its author Laurent Mauvignier received, among other things, the Pric Goncourtthe most prestigious literary prize in France. This usually stands for the highest ambitions – and less for exciting thriller stories. The subtexts that existed in the original novel can also be felt in a hint. At least in a few moments, “The Birthday Party” seems to plunge into dark social abysses as it slowly becomes apparent why Franck and his brothers have really penetrated this seemingly ideal world of the family.
One of the characters carries a dark secret with him (we’re staying so vague here so as not to spoil the already hardly any surprising developments in the plot). She was once involved not just in criminal acts, but in disgusting, disgusting activities. But that is quickly forgotten – it remains a moment that is over so quickly that it almost seems cynical how Mysius uses it as a mere plot point. This is particularly a shame because the “Emilia Perez” author can really direct things as a director – she conjures up a threatening atmosphere with precise images and a striking dramaturgy of light and shadow. It creates tension and also stages one or two irritating, extreme peaks of violence towards the end.
Benoît Magimel plays Funny Games
The cast is also convincing, especially Benoît Magimel, who is clearly having fun as the casual, sadistic antagonist. With his strange brothers – one looks like a French Tom Hardy, the other slightly off track, as if he had stumbled across from a Bruno Dumont film – he breaks into the family home and quickly destroys all certainties there. As a genre film, it works reasonably well, even if you have to swallow some pretty absurd plot moments and don’t think too hard about them after the credits roll. It’s just a shame that Léa Mysius was content with so little this time and didn’t continue on the path that she took with her first two, very special films.
Conclusion: With her third film “The Birthday Party” Léa Mysius delivers a fairly conventional genre film that only minimally varies the familiar patterns of a home invasion thriller. While it’s convincing in terms of style and acting, it’s still far from the narrative originality of her first two films.
We saw The Birthday Party at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere as part of the official competition.