The Sessions

Sien Versteyhe Belgium 2025 71 min.

A young student begins to rebuild her life through trauma therapy after experiencing sexual violence at the hands of someone she trusted. Outside of her therapy sessions she speaks to nearly no one about what she went through. With intimacy and restraint you follow a woman's struggle to talk to her abuser and above all: to restore the trust in herself and the world around her. 

Director Sien Versteyhe, who got an honourable mention at DOCVILLE in 2012 for her documentary Junior, now returns with a documentary about an extremely important, but painful topic: how do you move on after being a victim of sexual violence? We follow a student – who remains unrecognizable – in the months after filing her report: the therapy sessions, but also the numerous phone calls to the court of justice. An impressive look into the world of a victim in the long and difficult healing process after sexual violence. Versteyhe captures this complex process characterized by feelings of fear, anger, sadness, uncertainty and frustration with a lot of respect and serenity.