Our Children
Young, effervescent and full of life, Murielle (Emilie Dequenne, Rosetta) has a promising future ahead of her when she meets and falls head over heels for the handsome Mounir (Tahar Rahim, A Prophet). A wedding soon follows, and the happy couple quickly set about preparing to make a family.
However, with family comes ties, and none come so tight as that between Mounir and the mysterious Doctor Pinget (Neils Arestrup, A Prophet, Sarah’s Key), his adoptive father.
As Murielle continues to bring new life into the family, in the form of four beautiful young girls, frictions between Mounir and Doctor Pinget reach boiling point.
Helpless to extract her husband and children from the wealthy nest that Doctor Pinget has provided for them, Murielle is drawn deeper into an unhealthy three-way relationship.
With Doctor Pinget acting as Murielle’s personal pharmacy, and Mounir taking extended trips abroad to Morocco, Murielle becomes increasingly alone and unstable. There is only one way out of the nightmare, and for Murielle, all sense of reasoning must be abandoned.
Based on true events, celebrated Belgian director Joachim Lafosse’s intense, multi-layered dissection of an unorthodox family unit created an unprecedented buzz at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, and won Emilie Dequenne the prestigious Un Certain Regard Best Actress Award.
Our Children was critically heralded as one of the top art-house world cinema films of 2012 and was Belgium’s official entry for the 2013 Academy Awards. The film was selected for the BFI London Film Festival 2012, and marks Lafosse’s fifth feature film following on from Tribe, What Makes You Happy, Private Property and Private Lessons.
Lafosse co-wrote the script with Thomas Bidegain (Rust & Bone) and Matthieu Reynaert.
Emilie Dequenne enjoyed previous success at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Actress for her debut film performance in the Palme d’Or winning film Rosetta.
Her roles in films that followed include Brotherhood of the Wolf, The Girl on the Train and The Pack.
Tahar Rahim gained international attention with his performance in Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, which won him Cesar Awards for Best Actor and Most Promising Actor and the European Film Award for Best Actor. His roles in films since then include Kevin Macdonald’s The Eagle, Lou Ye’s Love and Bruises, Ismael Ferroukhi’s Free Men and Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Black Gold.
Niels Arestrup is an internationally known revered French actor. He has won two Cesar Awards for Best Supporting Actor for The Beat That My Heart Skipped and for A Prophet, acting alongside Tahar Rahim.
His other film credits include Warhorse, Sarah’s Key, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly.