21/10/2022 - Faustine Cros's first feature-length documentary employs home videos shot by her father to tell the story of his wife, who saw her motherhood as a deprivation of her freedom

The first feature-length documentary by French-born, Belgian-based director Faustine Cros, A Life Like Any Other [+see also:
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The doc largely consists of home videos shot by Cros's father, immortalising the most beautiful moments in his life, while her mother's difficulties were lost in the blind spots of his images. Today, the filmmaker revisits these pictures to tell a different story: that of a woman who sees her role as a mother as depriving her of her freedom, bit by bit.

“With all of these images (the archives and the ones I am filming today), I decided to make a film about my mother and her difficulties with motherhood,” says Cros. “In the editing, the footage and my voice-over all come together to tell her story and interrogate her depression in light of the sexist hold of an era; an era when it was still considered normal for women to give everything up for their children. In this work, I wish to highlight how intimacy can be political. Initially hinging on my personal and family life, the film broke away from an individual story to be placed in wider contexts: family, femininity, society. I am convinced that my mother’s story is not an isolated case and still resonates nowadays.”

A Life Like Any Other was produced by Julie Freres, of Belgium's Dérives, and Camille Laemlé, of France's Les Films d'Ici, in co-production with SIC Sound image culture, CBA Centre de l'Audiovisuel à Bruxelles and RTBF. Swiss sales company Lightdox has just picked up the international rights.

Check out our exclusive trailer below: