La ruche

Teen Marion desperately tries to keep her family in one piece, in the Walloon apartment she shares with her two sisters and her single mother Alice. However, loving their mutual jokes and nicknames may be, mum leans heavily on her ‘ugly ducklings’. She encourages the youngest to play truant, has the eldest sort out her medication and, after a nervous breakdown, her daughters are left to their own devices.

Christophe Hermans’s feature film debut La ruche managed to attract Ludivine Sagnier (Femmes, Swimming Pool) for the role of the mother, slowly succumbing to a bipolar episode. Forthright, emotionally convincing acting reveals how she drags her daughters down with her – the youngest played by Sagnier’s own daughter. The symbiotic, yet toxic relationship between mother and daughters is impressively depicted by camerawoman Lara Gasparotto, with more than a nod to the work of the Dardenne brothers.

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