Her Will Be Done (orig. title: May my will be done.) is a 2025 French-Polish drama film directed by Julia Kowalski from a screenplay by Julia Kowalski and Simone Beaufils. The film premiered in France on December 3, 2025.
The movie "„Her Will Be Done“" was presented in the Directors' Fortnight section at Cannes in 2025 and quickly attracted attention with its dark atmosphere, raw emotionality and unusual mix of social drama, mysticism and female corporeality. Kowalski constructs a story in which religious fear, repressed desire and hereditary trauma intertwine in a slow and disturbing tale of a woman trying to escape a world built on violence and control.
The story takes place in an isolated rural community, where 20-year-old Navoika lives with her father and brothers on a farm, subject to strict rules and hard physical labor. Her life is limited to daily work, silence, and a constant sense of submission. But behind her seemingly calm demeanor lies something disturbing - Navoika believes she has inherited a strange and dangerous power from her late mother. When the freedom-loving and mysterious Sandra appears in the village, the young girl's world begins to change. For the first time, Navoika sees the possibility of a different life - beyond fear, religious shame, and the control of the men around her.
As his attraction to Sandra grows, Navoika begins to experience increasingly strange states—seizures, visions, and bursts of uncontrollable energy. The line between supernatural curse, sexual awakening, and psychological trauma gradually begins to blur. The film does not use a traditional horror model of sudden, startling moments. Instead, the tension is built through a sense of inevitability—a feeling that something deeply repressed is finally beginning to surface.
Julia Kowalski directs the film with a hypnotic slowness and an almost documentary-like rawness. Simone Bofills’ camera constantly emphasizes the physical weight of the environment—mud, sweat, dirty animal pens, damp earth, and narrow spaces. Nature does not appear beautiful or romantic, but heavy and primal. The strongest element of the direction is the atmosphere of suffocation. The village is presented as a place where female desire is perceived as a threat, and any form of difference breeds fear and aggression. Kowalski mixes a realistic social environment with almost pagan horror motifs. The more the heroine tries to understand her own nature, the more unclear it becomes whether we are witnessing a genuine supernatural phenomenon or an outburst of long-suppressed rage.
Maria Vrubel (Navoyka) gives an extremely physical and emotional performance. For most of the film, her character speaks little, but the actress manages to convey immense inner tension through looks, movements, and gradually changing demeanor. Navoyka seems both vulnerable and dangerous — someone who is slowly discovering her own strength.
Roxanne Mesquida (Sandra) brings a magnetic and unpredictable presence. Sandra is a symbol of freedom and temptation, but also a catalyst for everything repressed in Navoika's life. Mesquida builds a character who is both calming and frightening.
Wojciech Skibinski [Henrik] creates a harsh and menacing image of a man who grew up in a world where control and aggression are normal means of communication. His presence constantly maintains a sense of danger.
Przemysław Przeszczelski and Kuba Dinievich – the two actors perfectly complement the atmosphere of a toxic family environment, in which violence is part of everyday life, and silence covers everything.
The film also stars Jean-Baptiste Durand, Raphael Thierry and Eva Lalie Juan, which contribute to the sense of a world torn between religious fear, sexual repression, and ancient superstitions.
„Her Will Be Done“" is a heavy, slow, and intensely atmospheric film that uses folk horror as a vehicle for telling a story about female rage, repressed desire, and inherited trauma. This is not a horror film that relies on loud effects or cheap scares. The real horror here comes from the feeling of a life spent under control—in a society that fears anything different, and especially a woman's free will. Julia Kowalski creates a simultaneously beautiful and filthy world in which nature, the body, and violence merge into an almost ritualistic nightmare. And Maria Vrubel's central performance turns the film into a painful and memorable portrait of inner liberation.
