In Safe Hands

A French drama. A woman gives birth in hospital and says she wants to leave the child. She is using a legal right; she can change her mind within two months, after which the child enters the adoption process. The film is about what follows. The baby is handed to a state service. A foster carer takes him temporarily; a man named Jean, experienced and calm. What his job is, is clear: he will love this child and then give him away. The second line is a woman who wants to adopt. Alice has been applying for years, her file is examined, her age is raised as a problem, and she cannot keep her hope. The third line is the institution itself. Social workers meet, discuss the files, and decide which child goes to which family. Those meetings are the most striking part of the film. What the narrative is interested in is not feeling but process: the film shows in detail how a system works and asks what the people inside it do with their own feelings. It was made after a long preparation with people who work in the field, and the procedures are close to real. Sandrine Kiberlain, Gilles Lellouche, Élodie Bouchez and Olivia Côte are in the cast. Jeanne Herry wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes dramas that show the inside of institutions, and quiet narratives. Who it is not for: anyone the subject would weigh on; the film is about birth, relinquishment and attachment, and it is emotionally tiring.