Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire, 2019, “Kino Pavasaris”) tells universal and poetic tale of loss, memory, wonder and imagination, revealed through the eyes of a girl. Nelly has just lost her beloved grandmother and is helping her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home. While exploring the house and the surrounding woods where her mom, Marion, used to play Nelly meets a girl her own age building a treehouse. Her name is also Marion. The film initiates a dialogue among the generations and fulfills the dream of many to meet and befriend one’s parents when they were young.

“Petite Maman unravels its fairytale with the warm embrace of autumnal melancholy, gently placing its hefty themes upon the buoyant shoulders of its young protagonists. Within the timelessness of nature, Sciamma’s precise direction observes the inquisitive wonder of childhood crossing the threshold of adulthood stoicism. Minimalist in form and mutedly expansive in existential truths, Petite Maman communicates across time and generations to construct a sweet-natured portrait of grief and memory, uplifting and comforting us as it paces between the boundaries of life and death.” (Andrei Tănăsescu)

Director's biography:

Céline Sciamma (b. 1978) is a French screenwriter and director. Her debut feature, written as a final work for film school, Water Lillies (2007), premiered in Un certain regard at Cannes. Tomboy (2011) was presented in Berlin and won Panorama Jury Prize. Girlhood (2014) opened Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, “Kino Pavasaris”) was awarded for best screenplay in Cannes Competition.