The Courageous
Kolb delivers a typically electrifying, enigmatic portrait of a mother fighting like a cornered animal to keep her family together
Directed by Jasmin Gordon
Starring: Ophélia Kolb, Paul Besnier, Arthur Devaux
Released: 5 September
7/10
Ophélia Kolb surely deserves a break. Having got the rough end of the stick in the 21st century’s greatest screen romance (as beleaguered accountant Colette, opposite Camille Cottin’s Andrea in Call My Agent!), now in Jasmin Gordon’s debut feature she plays a Swiss single mum well and truly at the end of her tether.
Julie has three kids, a troubled past (she wears an electronic tag she tells her kids is an ankle support) and a doubtful future. She’s months behind on the rent, has failed in her bid to buy the family home she’d set her heart on, finds herself stealing and shoplifting to make ends meets, and is increasingly prone to flight or fight impulses. Her kids are bewildered as she disappears for hours at a time, desperately scheming towards a better life.
“Even if you cheat you can’t win,” she concludes as her psychological fuel gauge finally hits empty. Kolb delivers a typically electrifying, enigmatic portrait of a mother fighting like a cornered animal to keep her family together, all the more powerful for its refusal to offer pat explanations and excuses.
