Synopsis
In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the moving chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.
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Cast
- Annabelle LengronneRose
- Stéphane BakJean (age 19)
- Kenzo SambinErnest (age 13)
- Ahmed SyllaErnest (adult)
- Sidy FofanaJean (age 10)
- Milan DoucansiErnest (age 5)
- Jean-Christophe FollyJules César
- Majd MastouraMalick
- Pascal RénéricMarsac
- Thibaut ÉvrardThierry
Recommendations
- 80
The Guardian
Here is a film about a very complicated and painful kind of coming of age, or maybe a meditation on “coming of age” as something that never actually happens; it also examines the illusory dividing line between childhood and adulthood, innocence and experience, present and past. - 80
The Telegraph
Serraille, whose debut feature Jeune Femme won the Camera d’Or at Cannes in 2017, has returned with a film that feels like a jewellery box of telling moments: there is precious stuff here, and real sparkle too. - 80
Variety
Inspired by the life and roots of her children’s father, Serraille’s original screenplay embeds tacit, national-scale socioeconomic commentary in its intimate domestic story, though smartly avoids making blunt symbols of its sharp, specific characters. - 70
Screen Daily
Although Mother And Son loses some of its energy as it unfolds, it is still a sensitive and complex examination of the shifting tensions in a migrant family. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
Léonor Serraille’s film Mother and Son contains moving strokes, but struggles to make a lasting emotional dent.
