Single mother Jule (Ophélia Kolb) takes her three children to a restaurant and promises to be back in five minutes. A long time passes without Jule’s return, so the young children decide to find their own way home. While ten-year-old Claire (Jasmine Kalisz Saurer) and eight-year-old Loïc (Paul Besnier) bicker over the best way to locate their mother, six-year-old Sami (Arthur Devaux) crosses the motorway, and a terrifying shot shows him standing alone in the middle while cars fly by.
Scenes such as this one make for uncomfortable viewing, but Jasmin Gordon’s debut feature film, The Courageous, refuses to shy away from the chaotic reality of grasping for a better life. Throughout the film, lingering camerawork emphasises the lush green wilderness which entices Jule as she struggles to provide for her family in a wealthy Swiss town. Gordon shows the viewer what the children do not see, but are becoming increasingly aware of as the summer unfolds: their mother’s hardships. Yet the film has a warmth to it which emerges from its close-knit relationships, often expressed through gestures and facial expressions rather than dialogue. Kolb captures Jule’s anger and exhaustion while ultimately portraying her as an affectionate mother who will go to extreme lengths for her children – if Jule is rebellious and at times selfish, resilience and determination are the other side of that coin.
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