Direction: Céline Sciamma
Country: France
On the trail of the glory achieved with Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), this precious little drama film confirms Céline Sciamma as a powerful and versatile filmmaker. Showing transparency in the method while infusing fantasy in the story, the director conveys deep feelings as she films from the perspective of a sensitive 8-year-old girl, Nelly (Joséphine Sanz). The latter attempts to go deeper in the bond with her abstracted mother, Marion (Nina Meurisse), to compensate the recent loss of her beloved maternal grandmother (Margo Abascal).
In the process, she finds herself transported to the past, connecting with her mother when she was exactly her age (the young Marion is Joséphine’s twin, Gabrielle Sanz). All these strange things happen in her grandmother’s house and the woods that surrounds it. It’s marvelous to see mother and daughter playing together with such enjoyment. Yet, they also have their hidden worries, which they reveal to each other with an inextinguishable sense of trust. The unfathomable shift in time is the magic that makes you engrossed, making you eager to know what comes next.
The innocence, perceptiveness, sadness and occasional rapture conveyed by the twin protagonists in this intimate, concise drama will stop you in your tracks. Rarely a sharp-eyed depiction of a mourning period takes the form of an exceptionally tender experience.
