About the Film
There are many questions at the heart of Delphine Deloget’s fiction feature debut. Whether a family should only consist, in the traditional way, of a mother, a father and the offspring. Yet if the system designed to protect children, which exists in every Western country, is actually doing so.
In the case of Sylvie (Virgine Efira), the single mother of two boys, the answer to both of those questions is no, and no. One evening, as Sylvie is at work, her youngest son Sofiane creates an emergency that requires a trip to the hospital, accompanied by his older brother. Because the eight-year-old had burned himself while the two were unsupervised, the incident is soon followed by the visit of an inspector from child protective services, accompanied by two police officers. The future of Sylvie and her children must now go through a lengthy legal process, one that feels antiquated and disconnected from all forms of humanity.
The result is only too predictable, and Deloget has enlisted the help of a great leading lady, one able to convey at once the despair but also the courage of a mother whose child is taken away from her. Efira carries the movie throughout, and allows the viewer to create their own viewpoint, according to each one’s own experiences in life. As an aside, for cinema lovers, Mathieu Demy — the real-life son of French filmmakers Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy — stars in the film as Alain, one of Sylvie’s two brothers, also important to the story.
The film world premiered in Cannes, as part of the Official Selection in Un Certain Regard, where it received good reviews. For once, every critic agreed that Efira is the undisputed star of modern French-speaking cinema and that Deloget treats her subject matter with insight and care.
If the film manages to create a movement to change the status quo, something similar to what came after the film Rosetta by the Dardenne brothers, still remains to be seen.
E. Nina Rothe
