Petite Maman

*This is one of three films selected by the Film and Media Culture Department at Middlebury College in partnership with VTIFF to screen in the Hirschfield International Film Series.

Best known for 2019’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Céline Sciamma’s work is prized for her delicate, psychologically rich, and compositionally precise portraits of young women awakening to their identities. Perhaps no writer-director has more firmly established herself in the coming-of-age genre. Such stories typically proceed forward in time; Petite Maman moves forward by going backwards. Spurred by the loss of a grandparent, timelines cross and, at the tender age of 8 years old, a mother and daughter have a chance to become playmates. They meet at a shared moment of fear and uncertainty and are able to offer each other the support that the adults in their lives don’t know how to give. In Sciamma’s hands, even time travel can be beautifully contained and emotionally grounded. ~Travis Weedon