Our Children Review

3rd May 2013

A devastating portrayal of the crushing power of influence on a delicate soul, Our Children will leave you wondering how anyone could be so vulnerable.

Murielle, a vibrant, youthful, loving woman marries Mounir, a Moroccan immigrant beholden to his rich benefactor, Andre. Andre is a seemingly affable paternal figure, but it’s soon clear that he doesn’t want Murielle in the life he’s carved out with his surrogate son, Mounir. He also refuses to allow them any independence as a couple or as a family, meaning that his disturbing influence seeps into their personal lives. Murielle slowly becomes the outsider, unable to please anyone despite trying so desperately hard. Slowly, over the course of a few short years, Andre and Mounir tighten the screws, one purposefully and the other complicity until she shatters.

Emilie Dequenne gives one of the finest cinematic performances I’ve ever seen. She plays Murielle with such a quiet, creeping desperation that even the audience is unaware of how utterly broken she has become. She plays the loving Mother so dutifully and sweetly that she is completely innocent of her actions. The end isn’t dramatic, but inevitable and the sadness of that fact is so palpable it weighs heavily on you, as a viewer I felt almost guilty for not stepping in sooner. Her relationship with Mounir’s Mother, a woman she hardly ever sees and cannot speak to because of a language barrier, is the only person who praises her and gives her any genuine love. The last few scene of the two of them together simmer with a tragic undertone and when Murielle hugs her, she just doesn’t want to let go.

Mounir, played by Tahar Rahim does a great job of not being the bad guy, almost being a victim himself, until he crosses a line. He and Niels Arestrup, last seen in together in The Prophet, are well matched with a relationship that is based on a mutually beneficial arrangement which mimics a loving familial relationship, but isn’t. Murielle’s love by contrast, is so selfless that it clashes with their pre-existing concept of a loving relationship.

The film is underscored with a mundane, everyday feel too it that disguises the viciousness of what’s happening. The effect of this everyday inference that Murielle is to be put up with, a nuisance, someone who can’t be trusted with her own babies is so subtle, it’s absolutely credible. Murielle’s naivety and loving nature become her downfall.

A plausible character piece that really explores fragility in a hum-drum domestic environment, Our Children is deeply moving and its effects linger long after you leave the cinema.