Petite Maman

Petite Maman is a precious, poignant, and perfect film exploring the mysterious bond between mother and daughter. Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) has dreamed up something strikingly original: a simple, subtle, fluid fairy tale or ghost story, a poetic conceit realized with the utmost tact and delicacy.

Nelly’s grandmother has just died. Eight years old, she is largely left to her own devices, exploring the forest behind the house as her parents set about packing it up. There she meets another eight year-old named Marion, building a treehouse. The two become fast friends, and Marion invites Nelly back to her home — which turns out to be identical to her grandmother’s house. The two girls have a deep affinity, not least in their serious turn of mind. With a maturity beyond their years, Nelly and Marion recognize their meeting will be both fleeting and irrevocable, like a movie you see just once but that will stay with you always.

Whether you are six or 60, this astonishingly insightful and heartbreakingly hopeful cinematic poem will pierce your heart, broaden your mind and gladden your soul, even as you wipe away tears. Petite Maman is short and sweet, yet fearlessly profound. A mix of fairytale, ghost story and rites-of-passage journey, this is at heart a cinematic parable about healing intergenerational wounds, about breaching the barriers that inevitably grow between parents and children.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

Wild… delightful and weird, and eventually very moving… There isn’t a false note or superfluous image in Petite Maman, which runs a just-right 72 minutes. It’s perfect.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

Petite Maman hits all the right notes, creating an epic in miniature. One warning: It may leave you a blubbering mess.

Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail