eelco-de-groot I am not a professional reviewer nor a movie expert. I have been struck by this movie since I recognize a lot in my personal life. My wife suffers from a bipolar disorder, and it took us 10 years to understand what she has before we could start proper treatment. This movie shows in a subtle and nuanced way, without judging, the systemic and destructive effects of this dreadful illness. I am fascinated by the way Joachim Lafosse, already at the age of 37, has been able to show the transformation of the relationship and behavior of the two other main characters, the partner and doctor. Many reviews suggest a perpetrator-victim relationship, for me Lafosse effectively showed that the whole family is a victim of this illness. In French "Tout comprendre c' est tout pardonner"; when you understand, you forgive. Very, very well done and the mother brilliantly played by Emilie Dequenne. This is a must see for everybody who knows somebody with a mental illness.

FilmCriticLalitRao This film by Belgian director Joachim Lafosse speaks about the imminent clash of civilizations between two young people as the film contains numerous references to differences of culture. As a film about an important contemporary topic which is liable to draw diverse opinions,Our children largely fails to make great impact on viewers as it does not ask pertinent questions. What bothers the most is that the most elementary question of a mother killing all her five children without any remorse is never answered ? It can be surmised that the reason for this absence of a direct reply lies in the film being merely an ordinary story where viewers are made to be mute spectators of a series of incidents happening in the lives of the protagonists. Although the film features good acting by veteran actors Niels Arestrup, Emilie Dequenne and Tahar Rahim viewers might develop a feeling that the film fails to effectively deal with its main plot. It is observed that most films about murders in a family tend to sensationalize the issue by taking sides. A viewer would feel happy to learn that Joachim Lafosse chose to deliberately avoid such an artistic trap. Lastly, it is this quality which would work in his favor. Belgian film 'Our Children'/A Perdre La Raison is based on the real life incident involving a Belgian woman Geneviève Lhermitte who killed her five children in 2007.It was part of 'Un Certain Regard' section at 65th Cannes International Film Festival 2012.

Sindre Kaspersen Belgian screenwriter and director Joachim Lafosse's fifth feature film which he co-wrote with French screenwriter Thomas Bidegain and Belgian screenwriter Matthieu Reynaert, is based on a real-life incident that took place in Brussels in 2007 where a 42-year-old woman killed her five children. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 65th Cannes International Film Festival in 2012, was shot on location in Morocco and Belgium and is a France-Belgium-Luxembourg-Switzerland co-production which was produced by producers Jacques-Henri Bronckart and Olivier Bronckart. It tells the story about Mounir and Murielle, a couple in their late twenties who lives in Brussels, Belgium. Murielle is a Belgian elementary school teacher and Mounir, a Moroccan and former youth worker without a permanent residence certificate. After deciding to get married, Mounir shares the great news with his close friend André Pinget, a wealthy doctor who has been like a father to him through most of his childhood and helped him and his family in many ways. André gives Mounir a full-time job at his practice, let's him and Murielle live with him in his apartment and Murielle and Mounir is happily married, but as time goes by André's ways of making himself indispensable and his insisting involvement in their lives begins to stagnate their relationship.Precisely and commandingly directed by Belgian filmmaker Joachim Lafosse, this somewhat biographical and fictional story which is narrated mostly from the female protagonist's viewpoint, draws an intimate and nuanced portrayal of a Belgian teacher's saint like suffering after marrying, becoming a mother and being second-rated by a husband who is more committed to honoring the wishes of his generous and demanding father figure. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions, fine production design by production designer Anna Falguères, cinematography by Belgian cinematographer Jean-François Hensgens and realism, this narrative-driven and dialog-driven psychological drama triangle depicts an in a sense provocatively heartrending, due to it's non-judgmental and empathic portrait of the main character, study of character and contains an efficient classical score which emphasizes the film's tragic undertones.This finely paced character piece about emigration, conflicting human relations, motherhood, mental exhaustion and paper marriage which is set in Brussels, Belgium during a summer in the early 21st century and which has been chosen as Belgium's submission to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, abrupt editing by film editor Sophie Vercruysse, substantial character development, the poignant and impressive acting performances by Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne who comes close to her unforgettable acting performance in the Dardenne brothers' "Rosetta" (1999) and the fine acting performances by French actors Niels Arestrup, Tahar Rahim and Belgian actress Stéphane Bissot. A concentrated and ambivalent love-story which gained, among other awards, the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress Émilie Dequenne at the 65th Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

lasttimeisaw A KVIFF screening, from French director Joachim Lafosse, before now the film has won a BEST ACTRESS award (for Émilie Dequenne) in UN CERTAIN REGARD competition in this year's Cannes. It is an unsettling drama concerns a tragedy which would be quite a mind-shocker. The film begins with the wife lying in the hospital bed (clearly after some severe accident) and mumbling that her children should be buried in Morocco, so during the subsequent truth-revealing narrative, viewers are practically preparing ourselves to undertake a tremendous calamity (my speculation is a car accident), but the film will deliver a much stronger and crueler blow, the actual long-takes of the massacre are done in an eerily tranquil restraint (considerably withdrawn from the actual execution). The foci are on the bizarre triangular relationship among three people, Mounir, a young Moroccan man and his French wife Murielle, live with elderly André a rich French doctor who had a paper marriage arrangement with Mounir's mother, so he could bring Mounir with him, and provide a job for him to work in his private clinic. So technically Mounir-André's quasi father- son bond has a deeper root (than Murielle, the clear intruder could imagine) although they are no blood linkage. Later, when their children consequently arriving in this world, step-by-step Murielle finds herself suffocated by the temporal life (possibly postpartum depression), and eagerly sways Mounir to go back to Morocco with their family, to start their life anew. But thing is slipping to an abyss when André cannot risk losing them and Mounir relies too much on him (both economically and psychologically) as well. Until the confrontation between Murielle and André finally occurs, the tragedy is inescapable.A heavy string score is predestined to the solemn tenor, the film is a trifle long-haul (a 111 minute running time) and the transitions of the characters' mental activities are either too abrupt or too hackneyed, but Émilie Dequenne for sure has been splendidly extraordinary in her devastating role, her self-destroy interpretation is powerful enough to propel the story against its ill-fated destiny. The A PROPHET (2009, a 9/10) pair, Tahar Rahim and Niels Arestrup are sharing their leading status as the other two angles of the triangle hazard, and overtly the latter has a meatier presence. There is a chafed undertone against the main plot, which I dare not to sidestep, the legality of paper marriage may not be the crux behind the tragedy, but nevertheless plays an influential part of the contemporary immigrant quandary.