Luna, written and directed by Elsa Diringer - 9 out of 10

Luna, written and directed by Elsa Diringer
9 out of 10


Luna is an excellent, emotional, rewarding motion picture that alas would most likely not get the audience it deserves.
It seems to have gone unnoticed so far and that is a great shame.

Lucky for me, it is on our Cinemax channel and this is where I could enjoy it.

The protagonist is Luna played by the marvelous, extremely talented if very young, charming, natural, remarkable:

Laetitia Clement

A young girl that is unfortunately involved- at least to begin with - with a gang of thugs, bent on harassment and mayhem.
She gets pregnant as a result of her intimacy with Ruben, a vicious yet cowardly young criminal.

This villain acts like the ultimate male pig, humiliating his supposed girlfriend, patronizing, controlling her and finally influencing her into taking part in vicious acts.
As a gang, they abuse Alex, another young male, not part of this band of brutes.

It is a coincidence that this boy comes to work a few days later on the same farm where Luna had found a job.
But she is worried and informs her comrades who want to act against this guy who surely wants revenge, this is what he tries to corner her at work.

Trying to have him fired, the heroine cuts behind his back into the harvest of tomatoes, sure that the farmer would be mad and sack him.
Though infuriated, the boss does not fire him.

Gradually, the unexpected happens.
Alex and Luna become friends and then more.

Alas, she has her past that she has not shared with him, even when it becomes obvious that he is haunted by that ugly event and has not had closure.
As they spend time in nature, a man with a dog comes close and Alex thinks he has recognized the aggressor, Ruben and is already fighting him when he is stopped.

It is a case of mistaken identity but the scar left by Ruben and his henchmen's attack is very clear.
Luna tries a few times to separate from this fascinating lover, but she appears to like him too much...indeed, love him.

She does something terrible!
Since she had to care for the dog that Ruben in his malevolent, horrible manner wanted to use for fights, Luna now feels that she has to get rid of it.

After the incident with the stranger mistaken for the aggressor in large part because of the dog he had, the heroine is sure that if Alex would see the pet she now has would remember her role in the humiliation.
She was the one who took his pants down after all...

So she decides to take the poor animal, only a few months old at the time, perhaps only two, and tie him up to a pole, near a field.
The poor dog could have died.

So what on earth did I say about the protagonist being a Fantastic Woman?
Forget that!

She is not.

Otherwise, a Luna is a wonderful, tender, intriguing, modern love story.

A pity there is one chance in a thousand that you will see it.