We don't know who the Bordeaux prisoner is. Is it Isabelle Huppert in the role of a surgeon's wife? Or is it Hafsia Herzi, who finds herself hosted by Isabelle Huppert so she can visit her husband in prison. Both have husbands in prison, and that's how they meet: when they go to visit their husbands, they bump into each other, and form a relationship. It's clear that Isabelle Huppert's character is bored in her current, albeit very well-to-do, life. Hafsia Herzi, on the other hand, is from a different social background and struggles to earn a living and look after her children; but she also has to look after her husband's fellow thieves and mediocrities. This introduces a story of stolen loot not yet recovered.
The film has the merit of showing the procedures for visiting someone in prison. This is something that is rarely shown, or at least with which we are not yet familiar.
The film does not address the issue of prison accommodation. Which is a societal problem, at least in France. The subject is this prisoner from Bordeaux, who may be one of two female characters, where Isabelle Huppert's character is a prisoner of her bourgeoisie and her mediocre lifestyle; or Hafsia Herzi's character, who is somehow a prisoner of the accommodation Isabelle Huppert offers her, but also of all the components of her personal life (children, husbands, partners).
Both actresses are formidable, and both characters are well portrayed, eliciting empathy from the viewer for different reasons.
