My Son

Julien is twelve, and his mother treats that as a betrayal. As he grows into a teenager and finds a girlfriend his own age, she opens what she herself calls a crusade: letters from the girl are intercepted and destroyed, clothes bought by his grandmother or with his own money are forbidden, a present he offers is thrown back at him in anger. Her husband watches without intervening, and only Julien’s older sister Suzanne pushes back. Martial Fougeron’s first feature refuses to soften the woman at its centre, and Nathalie Baye plays possessiveness as something indistinguishable from devotion, a performance that won her the Silver Shell for best actress at San Sebastián in 2006. The whole thing runs seventy-nine minutes and grows shorter of breath as it goes.