Sinon, Oui (1997)

Based on a true story this emotionally wrenching character study focuses upon a desperate young wife who feigns an entire pregnancy in hopes of convincing her dissatisfied husband to remain with her. Magali's problem comes from the fact that she is so bland and unassuming as to be nearly invisible. Her passivity and inability to form her own opinions grates on her husband Alain, a go-getter radio journalist, and he plans to take a year long assignment in Canada to get away from her. While preparing to leave, his boss, who has been inadvertently led to believe that Magli is pregnant, shows up and tells Alain. The husband's first response is to demand an abortion, but on second thought he decides he would like to become a father after all. Magli, fearing that he will leave, then devises her elaborate ruse. The gravity of her deception increases with that of her pillow-padded abdomen, for when her terminally ill father learns of her fecund condition, he vows that he will remain alive long enough to see his grandbaby. Her sister-in-law, who opted for abortion, is also very supportive and determined to help her through the pregnancy. As the months pass, Magli becomes increasingly cagey and cannily does not give Alain a definite due date. In the end, she solves her problem in a most creative way; it is a solution that spawns surprising consequences. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi