December 27, 2021 – After the death of her grandmother, nine-year-old Nelly (played by Joséphine Sanz) goes with her mother (played by Nina Meurisse) and father (played by Stéphane Varupenne de la Comédie Française) to her late grandmother's house. The family will clean out the house to prepare it for sale.

Nelly goes into the woods in search of a kind of shelter her mother had built when she was nine years old, shortly before she had a serious operation to correct a congenital defect. She does find the shelter, which is being built by a girl (played by Gabrielle Sanz) her own age, who has the same name as her mother, Marion.

It starts to rain and the two girls run back to Marion's house, which appears to be the same as Nelly's grandmother's house. Some of the furniture is the same. She peers into the bedroom and sees a woman who appears to be a younger version of her late grandmother, also named Nelly. Spooked, she flees the house, but returns the next day to find Marion working on the shelter again.

She soon becomes convinced that Marion is, in fact, her mother, and that Nelly has somehow traveled into the past, or Marion has traveled into the future, or both these things are happening at once. However it happens, Nelly and Marion are able to spend time together at these pivotal moments in their lives. The two only have a short time together because Nelly has to go home and Marion is due to have her operation.

Nelly gets to spend time with both Marion and her grandmother, Nelly (Margot Abascal) and learns important things about them, things she had been curious about, and things that her parents do not want to talk about. She finally reveals to Marion that she is her daughter from the future. As proof, she takes her to her grandmother's house (as it is in the future) where Marion meet's Nelly's father (and Marion's future husband).

Nelly's father tells her he has finished with the house and it is time to go home, but Nelly convinces him to stay one more night so he can spend the night with Marion. She is scared about the operation, but Nelly assures her that it will be fine. Marion also is able to assure her that Nelly is not to blame for the inner sadness that is a part of her.

When I saw this movie last night, I assumed that this strange time travel bit was all in Nelly's imagination. In the movie, she does have a big imagination (and so does Marion) she's very smart, and has a good memory. So if she and her mother had met in the past, why doesn't her mother seem to remember this? It seems like something she would remember, but in the movie, she doesn't seem to. But Wikipedia says the time travel was real, which is far less believable.

So, either the time travel happened, or it didn't, or if it did, then Marion somehow loses all memory of it in the future. In either case, Nelly's mother (the future one) is absent for most of this time travel period of the film, probably to make it simpler to present the story. This story comes across a lot more like movie magic fantasy than movie science fiction.

At any rate, the two young girls who share past and future selves, helping each other in the process, is a nice little story. The ending is nice, too, in its own way. The title of the film seems to refer to the young, or “little mother,” that Nelly meets in this story. This movie was written and directed by Céline Sciamma (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”). This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff (no extra charges apply). I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2021 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

Robert Roten can be reached via e-mail at