Memory, Michel Franco, 2023

A pain that makes you forget and one to forget. A memory that is lost and one that one would like to lose.
The ribbons of two opposite stories meet exactly in the middle where everything is in balance and each of the two paths takes a new and different direction together with the other. Because where memory cannot be lost or recovered, it can still be overwritten.

Sylvia, an overprotective single mother with a past as an alcoholic who now works as a social worker, accidentally crosses paths with Saul, the man who raped her in high school. The latter, however, now suffers from dementia and is therefore unable to remember the event, which pushes Sylvia herself to investigate and question her memory: doubtful of having blamed the wrong man, she offers to take care of of Saul to keep an eye on him.

The intimate and wounded delicacy of the story written and directed by Michel Franco takes shape and feeling in the superlative performances of Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard who make and are the entire film.