Revoir Paris on Arte: Virginie Efira confronts memory, our review

Arte airs Paris Memories on Monday, November 9, 2026, at 8:55 p.m. Alice Winocour follows an attack survivor played by Virginie Efira, who won the César Award for Best Actress in 2023. Read our review.

In Revoir Paris, a survivor tries to piece together her memories after an attack at a brasserie. Arte airs Alice Winocour’s film on Monday, November 9, 2026, at 8:55 p.m. Virginie Efira, who plays Mia, won the César Award for Best Actress in 2023 for the role.

Three months after the attack, Mia is struggling to get her life back on track. She returns to the places and people who might help her understand what she has been through. Benoît Magimel and Grégoire Colin star alongside Virginie Efira in this film, released in France on September 7, 2022.

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In our review published when the film was released in theaters, we wrote:

How do you tell the story of the Paris attacks? In recent years, many works have tackled the subject from a range of perspectives, from Netflix’s documentary series Fluctuat nec mergitur to the police procedural depicted in Cédric Jimenez’s Novembre. Revoir Paris, meanwhile, focuses on the victims and their recovery. Inspired by her brother’s survival of the evening of the Bataclan attack, director Alice Winocour said she wanted to tell the story of the victims’ resilience and their defense mechanisms. At the 48th César Awards, Virginie Efira won the César Award for Best Actress.

Mia, played by Virginie Efira, happens to be in a brasserie one evening when an attack suddenly takes place. In the weeks that follow, she has almost no memory of that horrific night. She then decides to investigate, to piece together what happened and finally get back to a normal life.

Taking on a subject that is still very recent for those who lived through it, Revoir Paris is deeply moving in every scene. The still-raw wound brings back painful memories and is profoundly affecting. The attack sequence is extremely difficult to watch, and the rest of the film continually evokes this immense pain, whether through the other victims—whom Mia comes to know, each trying in their own way to treat their post-traumatic stress symptoms—or through her loved ones, who naturally no longer see her in the same way.

The technical craftsmanship behind the film is remarkable, from its suffocating sound design to the way it films Paris, which has rarely been portrayed this way in cinema. The cast is also remarkable, led by Virginie Efira, who gives one of her best performances here, alongside Benoît Magimel, who plays one of the victims. Revoir Paris is a great film. It was one of our favorites at the Cannes Film Festival, where it was screened in the Directors’ Fortnight, and it is also one of our favorite films of the year.