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IDFA2025 The Sessions

The Sessions

Sien Versteyhe / BE, 2025 / 71 min.

A young student undergoes trauma therapy for an act of sexual violence committed by someone she trusted. She lives with the consequences of this trauma every day, while her rapist appears to get away with what he has done.

poster IDFA 2025

A young student undergoing trauma therapy recounts how she was raped by someone she trusted. The camera focuses on the therapist’s face, and we never see the anonymous speaker. The Sessions unfolds almost entirely in this space, where the young woman speaks openly about the impact of the rape. Outside the therapy room she doesn’t dare speak to anyone else about it—only her boyfriend knows what happened.

Throughout this period, her rapist is being questioned by the police. We don’t see these interrogations taking place, but we do hear about them in phone calls between the young woman and the court. They can tell her very little, and the police also prove to be of little help to her.

While she suffers every day from what was done to her, it looks like he’s going to get away with it. Her conversations with the therapist and the legal system provide insight into the long and difficult healing process that follows sexual violence.

This is part of

Details

Director

Sien Versteyhe

Production year

2025

Country

BE

Length

71 min.

Language

Dutch

Subtitles

ENG

Format

DCP

Part of

IDFA 2025

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is once again bringing an exciting selection of the world’s best documentaries to Eye this year, from 13 through 23 November.

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