We Need to Talk About Kevin

Eva pieces together fragmented, guilt-soaked memories of her son Kevin, from a difficult infancy through a childhood of quiet hostility to the school massacre he finally commits. In the present she lives isolated and blamed in the community, trying to make sense of what happened and of her own part in it.

The film turns on ambivalent maternal love and a failure of early attachment, refusing to settle the question of cause and leaving the viewer inside the mother's dread and uncertainty. It is a demanding case study in bonding, blame and the wish to have felt differently. It was a Competition selection at Cannes in 2011, adapted from the novel We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver.