Well, actually Belgian…this week my mama and I saw “Our Children” directed by Joachim Lafosse.

You know this from the start of the film so it is not spoiling it to say – the film tells of a mother who kills her four children. Inspired by a true event but in no way a story about that event (Lafosse purposely does not speak to the real life individuals) this film is so human. It is an open window to observe these characters, the good, the bad and the ugly – inviting the audience to reach its own conclusions. I for one left the cinema not able to say what exactly caused the mother to do what she did but somehow understanding all the same.

This is kind of a round about way to talking about two gorgeous French actors whom I love: Neils Arestrup and Tahar Rahim. They both star in Our Children. I first came across Arestrup and Rahim in “A Prophet” by Jacques Audiard (that really is a French film). Lafosse also was inspired by seeing this duo in A Prophet and he comments in an interview with Simon Jablonski of Port Magazine “when I left the screening of A Prophet I had this feeling that I’d watched a homosexual relationship”. That is such an interesting observation and I completely understand what he is saying.

If you have not seen either of these films and like the sound of the intense fragility that I’ve tried to describe I can’t recommend either of them enough. To entice you further, here is one of the trailers from A Prophet – love, love, love: