14/05/2025 - CANNES 2025: After her highly acclaimed debut feature, Laura Wandel has made a name for herself with this visceral portrait of a nurse struggling against the powerlessness of the institution

"Let me help you". Lucie (Léa Drucker) is head nurse in the paediatric in-patient department. For some time now, she has been following the case of little Adam, whose health is endangered by an inappropriate diet encouraged by his mother. She knows that if the child is to be cured, he needs appropriate medical treatment, but also the cooperation and presence of his mother (Anamaria Vartolomei), who is the subject of an order by the family court judge to restrict her visiting rights. But mother and nurse have the same interests: those of the child. So Lucie fights, gets involved, perhaps more than she should, to maintain the bond between mother and child. The fight is not necessarily against specific opponents, but more often against an overwhelming infrastructure that tends to dehumanise the practice. Where to this day, women manage and execute, while men give the orders. The sick body is not only that of the patients, it is also that of the institution, an administrative giant that crushes human beings. The paediatric ward is teeming with distress and pain. Each patient has his or her own story, and comes with a past and liabilities. The social context often weighs as heavily as the medical background, even if a few blurred balloons in the background remind us that sometimes the hospital can also be a place of joy.

Adam's Sake [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the second feature film by Belgian director Laura Wandel after her highly acclaimed debut feature Playground [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Wandel
film profile], is not only a portrait of a woman and a social film, but also a psychological thriller, as we sense that the relationship of trust between the two women patiently built up by Lucie is about to be undermined by the system. The story of the film, selected to open Critics' Week at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, unfolds in real time, or almost real time, in an almost closed-door setting. The frame focuses on Lucie, the subject of the portrait, even if it means that the actions and lines of others are regularly off-screen.

And yet, in a few powerful, fluid scenes, Laura Wandel focuses her attention on the patients, whom she succeeds in making exist in our eyes and Lucie's; starting with little Adam and his family, his loving but distraught mother, lost in convictions that will never be judged or made explicit, and his resigned father, focused on his new life. Léa Drucker's performance is as sensitive as it is precise, as is the way the filmmaker looks at her. We watch as she struggles, almost loses her footing, then picks herself up again. We are at her side, sharing her doubts, her anger and her determination. For just over an hour, we are with her, in the rooms and corridors of this hospital, and the sight of her profound humanity is deeply moving. How can we accept that there are people we can't help, things we can't fix, situations we can't save? Unless, what makes us human is not to resign ourselves to our powerlessness in the face of life and death.

Adam’s Sake is produced by Dragon Films (Belgium) and Les Films du Fleuve (Belgium), in co-production with Les Films de Pierre (France) and Lunanime (Belgium). International sales will be handled by Indie Sales.

(Translated from French)