The Courageous (Les Courageux) (12A) |Close-Up Film Review

This story of a young mother and her three children living on the edges of society with no money is not something you might associate with Switzerland, land of high finance and worthy burghers.   But Swiss film maker Jasmin Gordon does just that in her first feature film.

Jule, a young mother, played by Ophélia Kolb lives on the fringes of a society which doesn’t give a damn about her and her three children.  The four of them are stumbliing on from day to day, not in the slums of a big city but a small town with lush forests around.  Though this is Switzerland, there’s not a snow topped mountain or indeed a cuckoo clock in sight.  We are given no name for her nor indeed that much information about how she and her children have got into situation they find themselves in.

The film opens rather startlingly with Jule leaving her children alone in a café with one lemonade amongst them and driving off, apparently totally composed.  She looks clean and respectable as do the children.  Is she hoping perhaps that finally the state will look after them?  The children though have different ideas.  When they realise the authorities are coming to get them, they do a bunk – rather a heart in mouth one, involving crossing a busy motorway – and find their way back home to their  mother, who we realise loves them to bits but is at her wits end as to how to care for them.  And unlike most homeless family stories, the caring professions and authority figures – social services, police etc – are nowhere to be seen.  Society doesn’t care, so she is going to prove to herself and her family that she is a good person.

The story deals totally in the present.   We learn nothing about the children’s father and how the family came to be apparently so invisible to society.  Unlike most desperate family stories, apart from that early non appearance, authority figures – social services, police etc – play no part and are nowhere to be seen.  The mother has been in some sort of trouble with the law perhaps, but we know not what. 

The story doesn’t always quite add up.  Jule is trying to buy a small, neglected house at a bargain price with cash she’s collected in a carrier bag – from where? – but loses the sale to a respectable buyer.   She seems adept at a bit of shop lifting, when one of the children need a present to take to a school mates party and though there are no signs of the usual social support network, the children do indeed go to school.   And when one of their teachers sneers at her and her family, she defends her brood with a punch worthy of Rocky. 

In some ways it’s a bit like watching an episode of the tv series Parenting.  One can almost subliminally hear David Attenborough’s smooth voice pointing out the ways  in which the human mother will do everything to protect her young.  This is not the almost  traditional Cathy Come Home style presentation of a destitute family, inviting your pity.   The main character is too proud, self respecting and indomitable for that.   And it is convincing due to the quality of performances.

The children are astonishing, particularly Jasmine Kalisz Saurer who plays the eldest Claire, who understands the desperate situation they are all in and is eager to help her mother.   What holds the film together though is a mesmerizing performance from Kolb.   She looks not unlike Cate Blanchett and has some of Blanchett’s power and charisma.  Impressive.