The Children of Others by Rebecca Zlotowski: the review by Paolo Mereghetti

THE CHILDREN OF OTHERS
Genre: parental-feminine comedy
Direction: Rebecca Zlotowski. With Virginie Efira, Roschdy Zem, Chiara Mastroianni, Anne Berest, Yamée Couture, Victor Lefebvre

Virginie Efira and Callie Ferreira-Goncalves in “The Children of Others” (© George Lechaptois / Les Films Velvet).

Rachel is a dedicated teacher and full of joie de vivre. His pupils seem to have taken the place of the children he does not have – he is single – at least until he meets Alì, an automotive designer with whom love breaks out. Di Ali Rachel learns to know the little daughter whom she soon grows fond of.

With beautiful delicacy, the film touches on the themes that cinema often eludes, from the mutual difficulty, for the lover and the child, to accept each other, Rachel’s unpreparedness when she has to start taking her mom’s place (for example by going to pick her up at judo lessons) until the inevitable meeting / confrontation with the real mother.

Virginie Efira and Callie Ferreira-Goncalves in a scene from the film (© George Lechaptois / Les Films Velvet).

Also author of the screenplay, Rebecca Zlotowski plays a lot of womeninserting the grieving figure of another mother, and digs into the sense of motherhood that her partner’s daughter sometimes fills and sometimes exasperates, then entrusting the unforeseen dynamics of broken marriages with the task of changing the cards.

Perhaps in the end the tensions find a compensation that is a little too reassuringbut the complexity and sincerity with which the figure of Rachel is told are a nice gift for the viewer and a good omen for the resumption of the cinema in the hall.

For those who want to deal with the problems of life.

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