As children return to classrooms after summer, a Swiss film presents a different kind of homecoming story—that of a mother navigating the precarious line between love and neglect. Ophélia Kolb delivers a powerful performance as Jule, a single parent struggling to maintain stability for her three children while wearing an electronic monitoring device.
The eldest daughter, Claire, recognizes her mother’s explanations about the ankle monitor don’t add up, while her younger brothers accept their mother’s frequent disappearances as normal, though they worry when darkness falls and she hasn’t returned.
Director Jasmin Gordon presents a world of gritty realism where moral certainties blur. Jule proves difficult to embrace as a protagonist—she clashes with housing officials attempting to help her family and even breaks into a property she cannot afford to rent, showing her children a home they’ll never inhabit.
Yet through Kolb’s nuanced portrayal, we glimpse the genuine affection beneath Jule’s flawed parenting. Moments of dark humor surface amid the poverty, like when she stages kitchen chaos to pretend a store-bought cake is homemade. In one particularly moving scene, she dances with her children to music as tears stream down her face—a moment that captures the complex reality of a love both profound and imperfect.
The film occasionally leans toward familiar territory, but Gordon elicits remarkably authentic performances from both the young actors and Kolb, creating a portrait of family life that resonates with emotional truth.
