Juliette Binoche’s first film as a director takes an unconventional and personal form, reflecting the same creative path she has long followed in cinema. Rather than fiction, the project is a documentary built around the creation of “In-I,” a stage performance she developed with British choreographer Akram Khan nearly twenty years ago. The work, centered on a couple drawn together and pushed apart, explores intimacy, conflict, and the strain of living together through movement and physical expression rather than dialogue.
The performance premiered in 2007 and went on to be shown 120 times around the world. In 2009, actor Robert Redford attended a performance in New York and suggested that Binoche adapt it into a feature film. Inspired by that idea, she asked her sister, Marion Stalens, to film rehearsals and performances, creating 170 hours of raw footage. For fifteen years, that material remained unused until producer Solène Léger encouraged Binoche in 2023 to turn it into a cinema release.
Binoche’s role in the film is mainly in the editing process. She said she wanted to examine the creative journey itself, especially the way the stage piece was written through improvisation. The work began with the theme of a couple, but without a fixed script or predetermined structure. According to Binoche, everything had to emerge from the body and from movement, making physical expression the foundation of the artistic process.
A key influence on the project was acting coach Susan Batson, who repeatedly urged the performers to “find your body.” Batson describes the body as the place where truth is revealed, in contrast to the mind, which analyzes. For Binoche, the experience confirmed that emotions are not simply intellectual states but are rooted in motion and sensation. She said that creating art from the body requires humility and a willingness to descend into feeling rather than explanation.
The film is structured in two parts. The first hour presents rehearsal fragments without narration or commentary, showing the intensity of the creative process: hard work, perspiring bodies, moments of frustration, and moments of connection. The second hour shifts to a filmed version of the completed performance. Binoche describes this contrast as the difference between something raw and naked, and something polished and fully formed.
Through this structure, the film traces a transformation from fragile, laborious rehearsals into a coherent artistic work. “En nous” presents not just the finished stage piece, but the struggle, experimentation, and collaboration that made it possible. It offers a rare look at how performance is built from instinct, discipline, and the physical presence of two artists in dialogue.
“En nous,” directed by Juliette Binoche, runs 2 hours and 3 minutes and is set for release on June 3.
