Maman est folle (2007)

Sylvie (Isabelle Carré) is a young stay-at-home mother of two children—Antoine (Zacharie Chasseriaud) and Manon (Elisa Heusch)—in northern France. She is married to Marc (Marc Citti), who works as a school bus driver. During the day, she usually looks after the children, but she also feels deeply lonely, left alone with herself and without a social life. At times, she behaves oddly and eccentrically in the eyes of those around her, but she is extremely sensitive and loves her children more than anything in the world. After getting a flat tire on an isolated country road on her way back from school, she meets Jallal (Nazmi Kirik), an undocumented Iraqi Kurdish refugee, who helps her change the tire. The next day, she happens to meet him again, along with many other undocumented migrants, as they receive medical care at a makeshift clinic run by Isabelle (Christine Murillo), a volunteer with a refugee aid association. Sylvie asks to join the association and gradually grows very close to Isabelle and the refugees. At times, she becomes too close, to the point of neglecting her family for the sake of her new relationships and risking her own children’s and husband’s safety through her impulsive yet generous and big-hearted behavior. She acts with her heart first and gives little thought to the consequences of what she does. In this way, she enters a world she does not know, where her natural generosity and sensitivity sit uneasily with the harshness and hardship of lives shaped by exile and living underground. Nevertheless, she supports Jallal to the very end, including when, after his asylum application is rejected, he attempts to cross the English Channel to reach England. The attempt ends tragically, and Sylvie emerges shattered by this painful experience of the world’s injustice. Only through the unfailing love of her family will she be able to find peace again.