“Only fools and dead men don’t change their minds,” American industrialist John H. Patterson once said. It’s perhaps a strange quote for a single mother in small town France to know, but Jule isn’t easy to pin down. Neither is The Courageous, the assured feature debut by Jasmin Gordon. What in ordinary hands would be a story of redemption or reclamation is something far knottier as Gordon offers a captivating and sympathetic study of a society that in its eagerness to punish is far less ready to forgive.
Powered by an unflinching performance by Ophelia Kolb, she leads the picture as Jule, a dreamer and fighter in equal measure, whose every step in life is led by scrappy determination. Her children — tweenage Claire (Jasmin Kalisz Saurer), sensitive middle-grader Loic (Paul Besnier), and youngest Sami (Arthur Devaux) — are the reason she desperately tries to prove her worth, even if the townspeople, old acquaintances, and her own social workers meet her with barely concealed contempt. Jule’s erratic and unpredictable behavior raises concern with adults and worry her kids, but there’s no one but the mother herself who knows just how hard she’s fighting for the stability everyone else takes for granted.
The screenplay by Julien Bouissoux — from a story developed with Gordon — slowly teases out the background that keeps Jule is bravely trying to overcome. From the ankle monitor she carefully keeps hidden to the flutterings of rumors that circulate in the air, there are no specifics, just enough for the audience to know there’s an added burden to her financial struggles and a further weight to her emotional wellbeing that’s on the cusp of falling apart. The film’s larger plot involves Jule trying to get the finances together put the down payment on a house, but it’s practically a Macguffin; it’s hard to believe there’s any reality in which the barely employed, ex-convict mother could make it happen. As Jule’s web of fabrications and justifications to her kids for their constant moves and her mercurial choices starts to teeter, that’s when the film is at its most charged and affecting.
The strongest moments in The Courageous are also its smallest. Looking after her brothers at a local soccer pitch, Claire stares longingly at a trio of girls her age, aching for a friendship she knows isn’t tenable. Sami accepts that Jule won’t accompany him to a friend’s birthday party, but its his wave to the car before he goes inside that will break your heart. Its in these fleeting instants where the impact of Jule’s actions are most keenly felt. Yet, her kids love her unwaveringly and without condition, and even as Claire begins to see through the lies to the precarious situation her family is really in, it only draws her closer to her mother as she begins to understand what really has been at stake.
You can tell your kids to look both ways before they cross street or not to talk to strangers, but it’s often your actions that make the biggest impression. Their rent may be three months behind, and a stretch in prison is likely not too far in Jule’s future, but headstrong, proud, and filled with a heart-bursting adoration for her children, they sense that love in every decision she makes. “Those who are courageous are free from fear,” Confucius said. Jule knows this well. There are no easy answers or pat conclusions in Jasmin Gordon’s compassionate film, but as it closes, and Jule and her kids literally take their next leap, being free from fear will serve them well wherever they land next.
Director: Jasmin Gordon
Screenplay: Julien Bouissoux
Cast: Ophelia Kolb, Paul Besnier, Arthur Devaux, Jasmine Kalisz Saurer
Producers: Brigitte Hofer, Cornelia Seitler
Cinematography: Andi Widmer
Production design: Rekha Musale, Ivan Niclass
Costume design: Linda Harper
Editing: Jan Muhlethaler
Music: Mirjam Skal
Sound: Jurg Lempen
Production companies: maximage (Switzerland)
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Discovery)
In French
80 minutes
