WOMEN ON TRIAL

(L’Affaire Marie-Claire)

US Premiere | France | 2026 | Drama, Biopic | 102 min | In French with English subtitles

Directed by: Lauriane Escaffre, Yvo Muller
Written by: Lauriane Escaffre, Yvo Muller
Produced by: Foucauld Barré & Nicolas Duval Adassovsky (Quad Films), Gaumont Production, France 3 Cinéma
Cinematography: Jean-François Hensgens
Original Score: Philippe Rombi
Film Editing: Valérie Deseine
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg (Gisèle Halimi), Cécile de France (Michèle Chevalier), Grégory Gadebois (Claude Faux), Saül Benchetrit (Marie-Claire Chevalier), Sarah Suco (Lucette Duboucheix), Florence Loiret Caille (Micheline Bambuck), Xavier Robic (the prosecutor)
International Sales: Gaumont
US Distributor: Menemsha Films
US Release Date: TBA

Synopsis

1972 was a watershed moment for women’s rights in France. And fearless attorney and activist Gisèle Halimi was the real-life architect of that turning point. It all begins when 16-year-old Marie-Claire and her mother are arrested for procuring an illegal abortion. The girl had been raped by a classmate, who staggeringly blows the whistle on them, then goes scot-free. The result is a landmark case that begins a firestorm in the press and turns bourgeois, Catholic, conservative France upside down… directly resulting in the Veil Act’s decriminalization of abortion two years later. This is the true story of that cultural revolution.

Directors’ bios

Co-directors Lauriane Escaffre and Yvo Muller have worked as film and television actors for more than twenty years — careers they continue to pursue, with significant roles in Women on Trial, as well. They eventually teamed up to cowrite and co-direct four short films: Le bon mélange pour la colle (2013); Mustang Sally (2014); Chèvre ou vache (2016); and By a Hair (COLCOA 2019), which was honored with a César Award for Best Short Film. They made their joint feature directorial debut with Maria Into Life (2022). Women on Trial premiered as a Special Screening at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.