Keeping Mum

With the clever double-meaning title she chose for her film, Émilie Brisavoine already sets the tone: delving into family fractures while creating a film full of tenderness, sprinkled with humor, chaos, and irreverence. After previously exploring the turbulent intimacy of her own family in her acclaimed first feature, Pauline s’arrache (2015), the filmmaker here focuses more specifically on her painful relationship with her mother, whose lingering effects resurface as she herself has just become a mother and as the pandemic lockdown prompts deep introspection.

Driven by energetic editing and a gallery of vibrant characters, the film becomes a therapeutic playground, constantly evolving and in dialogue. Archives from the past blend with present-day footage, video calls, intimate voice-over reflections, and face-to-face confrontations collide, and suffering intersects. The filmmaker makes her camera an ally, reclaiming her freedom within the endless maze of intergenerational trauma. Keeping Mum has the feel of a disco ball, reflecting the multiplicity, unpredictability, and brilliance that define human relationships and the ambivalent emotions they evoke.

Apolline Caron-Ottavi
Writer and programmer
Cinémathèque québécoise