Other People's Children
Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski
Running time: 1hr43 | REVIEWED BY CATHERINE BRAY
Virginie Efira, Callie Ferreira-Goncalves and Roschdy Zem star in Other People’s Children
Critics write more about crying now than they did fifty years ago. Maybe it’s a new emotional openness, maybe it’s to do with social media — what’s gonna get more likes and shares, an arm’s-length appraisal of the mise en scene, or tweeting, “I am not OK. Sobbing my eyes out from minute one of Top Gun: Maverick”?
In my obnoxious contrarian way, the ease of this approach makes me a tad reluctant to deploy the crying gambit as a sell for a review.
But — and couldn’t you just tell there was a “but” coming up? — I was struck by the fact that Rebecca Zlotowski’s new film Other People’s Children saw me sobbing over the twists and turns in a quasi-parental relationship. I think that’s a new one, for me. I’ve cried over deaths in films (people, animals, robots), of course. I’ve cried over the ends of romantic relationships in films. I’ve cried over thwarted romantic relationships (step forward, Brief Encounter and The Age of Innocence). And The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (please stop laughing) gets me every time, on a number of apparent vulnerabilities (the power of friendship, the bravery of sacrifice, elves going into the West — there, I’ve set myself off again).
Crying over someone’s tentative, delicate bond with a five-year-old? This is a first. Moreover, Other People’s Children is, for the vast majority of its runtime, not an especially sad film, although it does give us a hint, right at the start, that things aren’t necessarily going to end well. It’s quite a literal hint in fact: a classroom full of students are watching a romantic film, their teacher stops it before the end, they want to know how it ends and she replies, “Badly, of course.”
The teacher in question is Rachel, played with typical precision and empathy by the gifted actor Virginie Efira (who you may remember from previous Films of the Week, Benedetta, Madeline Collins or Sibyl). Rachel’s age is never specified, but is probably mid-thirties to early forties, given that a fertility MOT from her doctor (Frederick Wiseman) yields the no-nonsense advice to get on it ASAP if she wants to get pregnant. That’s easier said than done: her partner is a very new boyfriend, Ali (Roschdy Zem).
Ali has an adorable daughter, Leila (Callie Ferreira-Goncalves), with his former partner, and while the trajectory of Ali and Rachel’s romantic relationship is also a crucial part of the film and possibly gets the larger share of the screen time, the freshness of the film’s emotional impact stems more from the touching and beautifully drawn story of Leila and Rachel. It’s far from an idealised bond: at one point Leila wishes out loud that her mum and dad were still together, before bluntly asking, "Why is she still here?". Rachel is upset, but you can’t be mad at a five year old for hurting your feelings. The ending that we were promised in the first five minutes, nearly, as they say broke me. I am not OK.
OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN (LES ENFANTS DES AUTRES) (2022) Written by Rebecca Zlotowski | Shot by George Lechaptois | Edited by Géraldine Mangenot
Screened in Competition at the 79th Venice Film Festival
