Agnès Varda's drama focuses on the intertwined lives of two women brought together during the struggle of the women's movement in 1970s France - a subject matter that remains all too familiar with Varda, who was personally involved with the movement.

One Sings the Other Doesn’t was made at a time when a new law legalising abortion in France was still at risk of repeal and tells the story, beginning in 1962, of the enduring friendship between two women, Pauline (Valérie Mairesse) and Suzanne (Thérèse Liotard). Their friendship is forged when Suzanne, a young mother of two, decides to get an abortion. In the years that follow, one becomes a singer in a feminist folk troupe; the other, a counsellor at a family-planning centre.

A central scene finds them reunited at the trial of a 16-year-old girl accused of abortion. As a musical pop paean to sisterhood the film stands beside those of Varda’s partner, Jacques Demy, director of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Young Girls of Rochefort, but perhaps feels even more personal.

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