Menu
Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni / Belgium / 2020 / 87 mins
Alex and Noemie, both in their thirties, want a child. But their plans are upset when Alex’s mother, Suzanne starts acting rather bizarrely. It is due to her suffering from ‘semantic dementia’, a progressive and neurodegenerative disorder that influences her behaviour. She spends money recklessly, visits her neighbours in the middle of the night to eat slices of bread, and cobbles together a fake driver’s license for herself with scissors and glue. Suzanne the mother becomes an uncontrollable child. An unexpected and unusual parenting boot-camp for Alex and Noemie!
“In tackling this subject, the filmmakers have opted for a life-affirming approach. Thanks to their particular method of working, the film’s striking set-up and its delicate yet deeply moving balance between humour and emotion, they manage to address a heavy subject with imagination and light-heartedness, finding a clever solution to the rich equation made possible by cinema: a tragic background multiplied by a comic form equals emotion”. – Aurore Engelen, Cineuropa
Cast: Jo Deseure, Jean Le Peltier, Lucie Debay
Audience Award, Best Film, Molodist Film Festival 2021
Prix du public, Annonay Film Festival 2021
Prix du public, Festival des 5 Continents, 2020
Best Film, Magritte Awards 2020
To view the full 13th Parish Festival programme, please click here.
