Cross My Heart

Martin has been behaving strangely of late. At school his teacher and his classmates notice that he has gone quiet and turned inward. As the questions grow it comes out: Martin’s mother, who raised him alone, has died. Afraid that with no parents left he will be taken from the house and put in an orphanage, he asks his friends for help. Led by Jerome, a group of children decides to save him, and their first move is to get rid of the mother’s body. The film tells that frightening decision not as a crime story but as the children’s own logic. How threatening the world of adults looks to children is the real subject. Grief, fear and solidarity move forward at the same time. Jacques Fansten’s hundred and five minute French film was completed in 1991.