Written and Directed by Céline Sciamma
Starring Joséphine Sanz, Nina Meurisse and Stéphane Varupenne

In this short and sweet little French treat, eight-year-old Nelly (played by Joséphine Sanz) is helping her mother and father clean out her mother’s childhood home after the recent passing of her grandmother. She’s well-aware of her mother’s sadness, but any kind-hearted attempt to cheer her up doesn’t have a lasting effect. While playing out in the woods near her grandmother’s home one day, Nelly meets another young girl, Marion, who is also an only-child. The two girls instantly strike up a meaningful friendship and discover they share a unique connection.

French writer and director Céline Sciamma cemented herself as a globally-known and respected talent for her stunningly subtle depiction of forbidden desire between two women in the romantic period drama, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Two of her films prior to that, Girlhood (Bande de Filles) and Tomboy, are equally excellent films also telling separate female-driven stories that I found to be very involving. In Petite Maman, the relationships depicted between its female protagonists again explores different thematic terrain to Sciamma’s previous works, yet the subtlety applied to the storytelling for rewarding effect is again the commonality. Grief is of course present in the story told here, but it wasn’t the overarching theme I took away from watching Petite Maman. Rather, the film interestingly adds and uses another dimension in its storytelling that allows its young protagonist to question curiously and bravely what it is she doesn’t understand, yet seeks to. Do we keep more from our children than we ought to? While Petite Maman doesn’t explain an important component of the plot to make its entire story fully conceivable, it is a dignified and tenderly rendered film about a daughter who yearns to heal her mother’s wounded heart and feel closer to her again. 

Petite Maman is showing in cinemas across Australia from May 5th.

Moviedoc thanks Madman for the screener link provided to watch and review this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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