The Other Valley

Odile has patrol on the northernmost part of the border. It is brutally cold, forcing her to walk along the fence for seven hours at a time. She does her best to remain warm, optimistic about her next shift in the village despite the awkwardness of seeing her mother.

One night, the alarm sounds, indicating that there is an escapee. Odile runs toward the border where she spots a woman balancing on the fence. When Odile fires a warning shot with her gun, the woman falls from the fence, breaking her leg. Odile closes in on her, demanding her name and intentions. The woman recognizes Odile from the vetting program. Her name is Lucie Erro, one of the students cut in the first week. She tells Odile that she was returning to a day when she never met her husband. Odile notices the bruising on her neck and shoulders. Lucie then tells Odile that someone “promised” her that Odile would help her.

Odile hears Raimond approach. He shoots Lucie in the neck, killing her, then quickly swaps guns with Odile. When other guards arrive, Raimond praises Odile for stopping Lucie.

Back at the barracks, Jean-Savile asks what happened. Raimond insists that Lucie was going to escape if Odile had not shot her. Odile hesitates but, seeing Jean-Savile’s satisfaction, confirms Raimond’s story. Odile tells him Lucie’s name and what her intentions were, noting that she must have been passing through their valley because she would still be married here.

Jean-Savile pulls out a note from Est 1 that they received in the fall warning them of Lucie’s intentions. He wonders aloud why Lucie would come through their valley at all, especially in the dead of winter, instead of staying outside the border on her way to Ouest 1. However, he seems happy with Odile’s report. He pointedly takes her application to be an officer and moves it to the top of his pile.

Outside, Raimond excitedly tells Lucie that she is a shoo-in for promotion if she can stay in Jean-Savile’s good graces until April. Odile is too surprised by everything that has happened to object.

Jean-Savile drives Odile into town that night, a day early for her new post in the village. At the apartments, he has Turgis get ready early for his new assignment, giving Odile his bed alongside another gendarme named Malcher. He then has Odile sign the report of the incident with Lucie. As she does so, she keeps thinking of Lucie’s words that Odile was supposed to help her.

When Malcher comes out of the bathroom, he is rude to Odile. He complains that he and Turgis were going to enjoy their last night in the village, having saved all their money for that night. Odile tries to apologize, but Malcher dismisses her and leaves.

Odile goes to the Hôtel de Ville to deliver Jean-Savile’s report. She tries to talk with her mother, but she is distracted. Odile cancels their planned lunch together, saying that work is too busy, but her mother doesn’t seem to care.

As Odile walks around town, she realizes what must have happened with Lucie. When she saw herself in the future, the future Odile recognized her. That Odile instructed Lucie to pass through their village so that she would run into Odile at the border. Future Odile’s plan was to allow Odile to stop Lucie, thus earning praise from Jean-Savile and allowing her to become an officer and change her future. Odile isn’t sure how she feels about the realization.

Odile goes to the library and then the bindery to buy supplies. She plans to use her carvings to create ink prints.

Odile goes out to a bar named Val’s. The bartender and owner, Val, recognizes her and pours her a drink. She orders dinner. An intoxicated patron nearby named Isidore approaches her, confronting her about killing the escapee. Val angrily escorts him out of the bar.

Odile is uncomfortable as everyone stares at her. Alain comes and sits next to her, excitedly greeting her. They talk for a few hours, reminiscing about the past. Malcher comes into the bar, intoxicated, so Odile leaves.

Odile and Alain walk along the promenade. They talk about Edme, which is both strange and comforting to Odile. She mentions Edme’s music. Alain admits that he has a friend in the conservatory. He asked her to find Edme’s music, then had a group perform it. He requested it be played over the radio in honor of the 20th anniversary of Edme’s death. Odile remembers the day that Alain and Edme stopped Henri from bullying her and belatedly thanks Alain for intervening.

Alain and Odile say goodbye, both expressing their happiness at having gotten a chance to talk with each other. Back at the apartment, Odile struggles to fall asleep, thinking both of Lucie and her future self.

During her first patrol of the village, Odile passes the place where her grandparents’ house used to be. She reflects on her time at school after dropping out of the vetting program. The week Edme disappeared, Alain was not in school. The funeral was on Sunday, then Alain returned on Monday. Pichegru made Alain come to the front of the room and hit him with a switch repeatedly for his absences. After several moments of enduring it, Alain stood up and punched Pichegru in the face. He was then expelled from school. Ineligible for apprenticeships, he spent the next year helping Edme’s parents and has since been unable to find a steady job.

Odile arrives outside Lucie’s house. She sees her husband getting into his truck. Odile stops in the middle of the driveway, preventing him from leaving. When he asks what she wants, Odile tells him that someone made a complaint about him. She begins to open her coat, planning to reveal her gun, then stops herself. She quickly apologizes and leaves.

Walking back to her apartment, Odile is shocked by what she almost did. The thing that stopped her was the fact that, if she changed Lucie’s future, Odile would never have stopped her escape and, therefore, would not have the opportunity to be promoted because of it. She reasons with herself that threatening Lucie’s husband was no guarantee that it would fix Lucie’s life; it could have just as likely made her situation worse.

On her last night in the village, Odile returns to Val’s. She sits and drinks with Alain, this time talking less seriously about their lives. They make plans to meet again in the spring, with Odile promising to show him her prints from her carvings.

Odile’s next assignment is the floating border on the lake. She stays on a small island in a cabin, carving the sunset each morning. It is her favorite assignment, as she needs only to look through binoculars at the border instead of walking it. She feels content, partially due to her optimism at being promoted.

When Odile returns to the barracks, it is mid-April. There are rumors that Jean-Savile will announce who is being promoted soon. Odile is still his top choice.

One day, Raimond asks Odile to go to the officers’ homes with him. He stops at the end of the line of homes at one that is unoccupied. He tells her that he wants to live there. He asks Odile to live with him. When Odile asks if they would do so as friends, Raimond seems surprised, insisting that he wants to be more than that. Odile is shocked but promises to think about it.

After her guard duty that day, Odile returns to her room and makes prints of her carvings. As she does so, she considers Raimond’s request. She realizes that Raimond’s feelings for her should not have surprised her. She also knows that part of his reason for wanting to be with her is that it will impress the others, improving his status, which makes sense based on his history of being an outcast. In the end, Odile reasons that being with him would be a step away from the miserable life she saw in her own future.

When Odile is on patrol in town again, she is forced to room with Malcher. They both scoff at the idea but largely ignore each other.

On her first night, Odile looks for Alain. When she doesn’t find him in town, she goes to his home. It is in a rundown apartment complex by abandoned factories at the edge of town. He has a small, empty apartment.

Alain excitedly invites Odile inside. They drink wine from Jo’s family’s winery, which he implies that he stole. Their conversation is initially awkward but becomes better as they begin talking about the past. Odile tells him that she is going to dinner with her mother for her birthday, then Alain tells her about his 20th birthday years ago. He became angry when his parents did not celebrate it, as it marks the day when he is born in the valley to the west. When they accused him of wasting his life, he angrily left. He spent the next few weeks living in the fort behind the school, noting how sad it is that Edme’s initials were never carved into it.

Odile then tells Alain about the day she overheard Alain and Justine together. Alain explains that he broke up with Justine shortly after Edme’s death, then asks about Odile’s love life. She tells him about Raimond’s proposal. Alain is disgusted by the idea, insisting that Odile deserves something more, but Odile finds herself defending Raimond. She admits that she is going to say yes to him.

Alain suggests that Odile help him escape to Ouest 1 to save Edme’s life. Odile immediately dismisses him, but Alain argues that all their lives would be better if Edme survived. He is adamant that it doesn’t matter what changes as long as Edme survives. When he tells Odile that Edme was in love with her and that they could’ve been together, Odile gets up and leaves, insisting that she can’t help him.

Odile does her rounds the next day, thinking about Alain. She decides to avoid him and hopes that he will forget about his idea if she refuses to help. She contemplates telling Jean-Savile, then decides against it, both because she does not want to jeopardize her chances at a promotion and because she does not think Alain deserves to get in trouble.

Odile has dinner with her mother that evening. When she talks about her promotion, she is surprised that her mother responds that she wants Odile to do whatever will make her happy. She also gives Odile a new chisel—one of the most thoughtful things her mother has ever done for her.

After dinner, Jo spots them in the restaurant and excitedly greets Odile. When her mother excuses herself, Odile and Jo go out onto the restaurant’s balcony. Jo complains about her husband, Henri, and their children, grateful to get a break from them with Odile. She talks about Alain, noting how sad it is that he was expelled from school and was never able to find a regular job.

As Jo goes to leave, Odile stops her. She asks if she and Edme were ever together, remembering the night in the lake. Jo laughs in response, insisting that Edme was only ever interested in Odile. That night, he asked Jo how he should tell Odile about his feelings.

After Jo leaves, Odile looks out over the lake at the sunset, upset about Edme. She thinks of herself, 20 years in the past, celebrating her 16th birthday with only her mother, months before she became friends with Edme, Alain, and the others.

Later that night, Odile realizes that she left her book of prints at Alain’s apartment and decides she needs to see him just to retrieve them.

The next day, Odile goes to the cliffs above the lake where Edme fell. She finds the spot where she buried his violin and digs it up. It is largely decomposed, though its four metal tuning pegs remain intact. When she hears a noise nearby, she panics, burying the destroyed violin and its case. She puts one of the tuning pegs in her pocket and flees.

Odile spends the next few days in town avoiding Alain, mostly staying in her room. On the last night, she comes back from patrol and finds Malcher with her book of prints. He insinuates that Odile is sleeping with Alain, but she dismisses him, taking her book and going to her room. Inside the book, she finds a note from Alain with a map of where to meet him that night. She shreds it into pieces, takes it to the nearby cemetery, and burns it on a grave.

When Odile returns to the barracks on the eastern border, Raimond is waiting for her. He excitedly tells her that Jean-Savile has made a decision about the promotion but won’t give her more information. They make plans to meet for dinner after patrol, then Odile goes to the watchtower; she paces the entire time, worried about Jean-Savile’s announcement.

That night, Odile goes to the mess hall, but Raimond is not there. She waits for a while, then returns to her room. One of the officers comes and gets her, taking her to Jean-Savile’s office.

Jean-Savile tells Odile that there was a complaint about her having sexual relations with a civilian. Odile vehemently denies it, insisting that Malcher resents her and misunderstood her friendship with Alain. However, Jean-Savile informs her that Alain himself came to the barracks and told Raimond about their relationship. He denies her promotion and sends her to the western border as punishment.

Odile drives into town and finds Alain at Val’s tavern. She confronts him about what he did. Alain apologizes profusely, then explains that he wanted Odile to get transferred to the west so that he could help her escape. Odile starts to angrily leave, then turns back. She tells Alain that she knew about Edme’s death before it happened because she saw his parents visiting. Even then, she chose not to intervene. Shocked, Alain steps back from her. Odile turns and leaves.