The children are fine: irresistible Camille Cottin (review)

A film of rare emotional power about the consequences of a voluntary disappearance on those who remain. After Toni with the family, Camille Cottin shines again in front of Nathan Ambrosioni’s camera.

From the outset, it was obvious. Although the Angoumois competition did not lack serious competitors, the first screening of the Children are fine had folded the game. As it seemed obvious that the third feature film of Nathan Ambrosioni would leave the Charente city with the Valois de Diamant. Which was done five days later, with a special mention from the jury for the two young children, Manoâ Varvat and Nina Birman, who are taking their first steps on the big screen here.

But this evidence does not come from nowhere. Discovered in 2018 with Les Drapeaux de papier, the young filmmaker (26 years old) has continued to gain momentum ever since. And two years after Toni en famille, Nathan Ambrosioni amazes with the maturity of his writing and his talent for creating such acute portraits of women.

The Children Are Well opens with a seemingly banal visit that Suzanne pays to her sister Jeanne. Except that the next morning, Suzanne disappeared without leaving an address but a simple note to tell Jeanne that she was entrusting her with her two young children. Where did his sister go? Why did she decide to disappear without giving an explanation? And above all, how can we manage these two children from one day to the next when Jeanne has never been a mother and spontaneously experiences no maternal instinct?

Here are all the questions that instantly rush through Jeanne’s head, both knocked out on her feet and obliged to act as quickly as possible, relying on her ex Nicole, whose desire for unrequited motherhood had contributed to the breakup. Transcending the subject of voluntary disappearances which was the trigger for imagining this story, Nathan Ambrosioni creates a great film about the family, the bonds which unite its members and which can fade or even break at any time. A film of infinite sensitivity without cries or clashes where the pain and anxieties are first internalized and silent, so as not to panic the two young children even more.

At all levels, Ambrosioni takes a step forward with this new feature film, whose mastery of the direction of the story marries the quiet calm of its staging. We feel him here very inspired by the cinema of Edward Yang and Kore-eda Hirokazu and particularly by the way in which both of them in Yi Yi or Nobody knows portrayed childhood. Perfectly digested influences. And like them, he films Manoâ Varvat and Nina Birman from a child’s perspective, never overlooking them with his adult gaze and obtains a lot from his young performers who do not play on their nature alone.

If the film touches the heart so directly, it is because it constantly walks on its two legs: the world of adults and the world of children, each undermined by its own worries, its own anxieties which, from time to time, come together. But we also owe it to the sensitivity with which its adult performers grasp this story and these characters.

Juliette Armanet (Suzanne) Monia Chokri (Nicole) but also and above all Camille Cottin (Jeanne) to whom Ambrosioni still offers a major role after Toni in the family, confirming that she is flourishing like never before in her acting under his direction. The Children Are Well confirms the essential place it has taken in recent years in French cinema. It is difficult to see how the César nomination of which she had been unjustly deprived for Toni’s family would escape her this time.

By Nathan Ambrosioni. With Camille Cottin, Monia Chokri, Juliette Armanet… Duration 1h51. Released December 3, 2025