When a director loves her lead character in the way that Julie Lerat-Gersant loves her 16-year-old pregnant protagonist Camille (Pili Groyne, The Brand New Testament), it’s easy to overlook a certain lack of originality. The debuting director clearly delights in Camille’s energy, her flinty yet undernourished intelligence and burgeoning understanding of how she fits into that uncomfortable halfway state between adolescence and adulthood. Little Ones is brimming with sympathy for teenagers lacking the maturity to be mothers, alongside the dedicated counselors struggling against a system that too often applies Band-aids to situations requiring tourniquets. The film is unpretentious and heartfelt, and while it’s largely predictable and overindulges in its use of musical interludes, it doesn’t feel encumbered by its first film shortcomings.
Camille is first seen in an ambulance after she and her mother Clo (Victoire Du Bois) try to self-abort her four-month fetus. Social services determine she needs to be sent to a group home about one-hour away: she’s too far along to have an illegal abortion in France, and Clo’s irresponsible parenting already resulted in Camille being taken into foster care once before. Both mother and daughter lash out but it’s Camille who’s able to see they can’t fight the system so must figure out a way to deal with the new situation.
On arrival, she’s understandably prickly and volatile, quick with a retort and attuned to the need for gauging the toughened personalities of the other girls in the home, most of whom already have their babies. She’s drawn to trashy bottle-blonde Alison (Lucie Charles-Alfred), a good-time girl who genuinely loves her little daughter Diana (the director’s daughter Suzane Roy-Lerat), but as a typical teen she can’t put the breaks on her need to party. Camille likes Alison’s fun vibe but she also begins to feel some kind of responsibility towards the asthmatic Diana, and Little Ones is especially strong in how it develops this bond, which gradually overtakes the rapport between Camille and Alison.
The home’s chief counsellor Nadine (Romane Bohringer) is the sort of overworked, dedicated social worker we’ve seen countless times, struggling with limited resources to do what’s best for both the mothers and their children. She has a dynamic assistant (also her lover) Salim (Radouan Leflahi), but she feels alone in combating a system that too often gives slaps on the wrist for bad behavior when more drastic action is required. Nadine recognizes something different in Camille, allowing her the space to better understand her situation and make the long-term choices that will be right for her.
Unlike the other girls, Camille doesn’t plan on keeping the baby, and one of the film’s best elements is how this decision gets tested and yet reinforced as her due date approaches. She has a shining example of what not to do in Clo, who was also an unwed teenage mom and always treated her daughter more like a gal pal than an offspring. In all their scenes together, it’s Camille who ultimately behaves like the adult, which informs the choices she’ll make throughout her pregnancy as she contemplates a future that could either mirror or diverge from her own youth.
Without wearing rose-tinted glasses, Little Ones walks a welcome path between clear-eyed bleakness and hesitant optimism: hope exists, and bad patterns of behavior don’t necessarily need to be passed between generations. A ray of light comes in the form of Camille’s boyfriend Mehdi (Bilel Chegrani), a genuinely sweet young man who goes to school, doesn’t drink (unlike Clo’s and Alison’s partners) and wants to remain in the picture, come what may. While only intermittently onscreen, his character is a welcome presence, holding out hope that Camille’s life can be turned around with the support of someone who can grow with her.
Lerat-Gersant justifiably entrusts her star Groyne with carrying the picture, and the actor buries herself in the character, reflecting the subtle shift from defensive loose cannon to a young woman who responds to difficult situations in a more measured way; she’s still a teen, yet one aware of actions and their consequences. The director loves to show all her sides, from rollerblading and spontaneously dancing to the few moments when she’s alone in her room, allowing her vulnerability to come through while sitting alone on her bed. Virginie Saint Martin’s energetic cinematography captures all these moods, her camera observant yet sympathetic to its subjects. While of course music is a vital element of teens’ lives, the film has a few too many musical interludes that feel like unnecessary fillers.
Director: Julie Lerat-Gersant
Screenplay: Julie Lerat-Gersant
Cast: Pili Groyne, Romane Bohringer, Victoire Du Bois, Lucie Charles-Alfred, Suzane Roy-Lerat, Bilel Chegrani, Shirel Nataf, Davina Lwaka, Radouan Leflahi, Félix Maritaud, Louis Bernard, Julie Lerat-Gersant, Isabelle de Hertogh, Darren Muselet, Margaux Vesque, Céline Sallette
Producers: Sophie Revil, Denis Carot
Artistic collaborator: François Roy
Cinematography: Virginie Saint Martin
Production designer: Ninon de la Hosseraye
Costume designer: Elsa Bourdin
Editing: Mathilde Van de Moortel
Music: Superpoze
Sound: Jean-Luc Audy, Olivier Busson, Victor Fleurant, Matthieu Denlau
Production companies: Escazal Films (France), with the participation of Haut et Court Distribution, Canal +, Ciné+, in association with Cofimage 33, Indefilms 10, Be for Films.
World sales: Be for Films
Venue: Locarno (Cineasti del presente)
In French
90 minutes
