Synopsis
Petite Maman (2021) is Céline Sciamma's quiet fantasy drama, available to watch online on iFILM. Eight-year-old Nelly has just lost her grandmother. She travels with her parents to clear out her mother's childhood home, the house where her mom once grew up.
When her mother slips away unannounced, Nelly wanders the autumn woods alone and meets a girl her own age. The girl is named Marion, and she's building the same leafy hut Nelly's mother once described. Slowly it becomes clear who this new friend really is. The film never explains its small miracle out loud; it simply lets a child meet her mother as a girl and finally understand her. Real-life twins Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz play the two girls, and their bond carries half the magic.
Coming off Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Sciamma made something tiny here, barely 72 minutes, with no effects and no big set pieces. Everything rides on glances, pauses and pancakes in a kitchen. It looks deceptively simple, yet by the end it lands harder on the parents in the room than the kids. Stream Petite Maman (2021) online on iFILM.
Comments 0