The Promise is a suspenseful, intense, emotional feature based on the novel by Stefan Zweig. The essence of the story, according to the director, is lust. When you love someone without knowing if there is a chance that person will love you back. When you dream, but you can't make your dreams come true. When you are silent, but feed yourself with looks, gentle touches, caresses? In his novel, Zweig asks an excellent question: Can the lust of lovers be eternal?
Germany, 1912. Friedrich, a graduate from a modest family, starts an office job in a steel factory. The older owner of the company is impressed by the newcomer's skill, so he offers him the position of private secretary. When his health fails him, he is forced to work at home. He also invites the boy over and introduces him to his much younger wife. Friedrich eventually falls passionately in love with the charming but reserved mistress, but does not reveal his feelings. In a cramped bourgeois home, romantic intrigues unfold, without any words or signs of love. But when the owner sends the secretary to Mexico to be a mine supervisor, the boy is convinced by his wife's stunned reaction that the love is mutual. Love that Lotte cannot experience in the presence of her sick husband. He promises Friedrich that in two years, when he returns, he will be his.
After exchanging passionate letters, the lovers hardly expect to meet again. However, just before the planned return to Germany, the First World War breaks out and sailing between South America and Europe is prohibited. Eight years later, after millions of people have been killed and Europe is left in ruins, Friedrich returns to his chosen one, hoping that she was waiting for him. But has their love survived a period of immense brutality?
Romantic drama
A promise (A Promise, Belgium, France, 2013)
Directed by: Patrice Leconte. They play: Rebecca Hall, Alan Rickman, Richard Madden, Toby Murray, Maggie Steed, Shannon Tarbet, Jean-Louis Sbille, Sarah Messens, Jonathan Sawdon.
8/5/014, Coliseum
