film

‘My films are always about a few days out of the world’, said Céline Sciamma, the French filmmaker behind Girlhood, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Water Lilies and Tomboy, among others, said in an interview in 2021. Each of these wonderful, "small films about stolen moments, secret selves and outsiders who have crafted a vital life in the shadows" richly displays the truth of her highly perceptive piece of self-analysis, as does the short (70 minutes) and gorgeously sweet Petite Maman, which placed highly on just about every best-of-2021 list worth reading.

The film follows eight-year-old Nelly, who, after the death of her beloved grandmother, accompanies her parents to clean out the old family home. While exploring the woods nearby, she meets another girl, Marion, who looks strikingly like her. As their friendship deepens, Nelly comes to realize that Marion is, in fact, her mother as a child. What Sciamma does with this remarkable premise is heartbreakingly lovely, insightful and poetic, and her cause is assisted by breathtaking performances from real-life twins Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz.