Dir: Jasmin Gordon | Drama, Switzerland, 80′
A Swiss mother of three finds herself on mean streets in this filmic but rather flat family drama premiering at this year’s Toronto Film festival.
Jule (Ophélia Kolb) is a difficult character to engage with. In the film’s early scenes, set in the gloriously scenic Valais region of Switzerland, the attractive 40 year old blonde abandons her well-behaved kids during a family outing only to reappear much later without much explanation. 10-year-old Claire, her eldest, seems mature for her age – non surprisingly- and has a non-plussed but philosophical attitude towards her complicated mother. Loic, eight, and six-year-old Sami have learned to take care of one another, and while their rather self-entitled parent, a working bookkeeper, clearly feels disgruntled at not being able to offer them the life they all dream of, her attitude does not help their cause.
Because this is Switzerland, a wealthy country, the film explores whether all its citizens should share this wealth, and Jasmin Gordon’s focus here is the ‘working poor’. Jule has set her heart on a charming home amid pleasant surroundings but it is just beyond her reach financially and she lacks agency in pursuing her ideal future. Without much social grace, Jule tackles the various housing representatives by going off on a series of misguided tantrums, flouncing out of one office, and berating the estate agent in change of her desired home, and this does not help her cause either, despite her difficult situation.
In her feature debut, The Courageous Gordon invites the viewer ‘to set aside judgements and step into someone else’s shoes’, according to the film’s notes, but a more vulnerable, appealing central character would certainly help the audience to do so and feel Jule’s pain. In contrast Laure Calamy’s depiction of social desperation in the recent Venice title My Everything garners much more sympathy helping the viewer to root for her all the way despite her understandable rants. @MeredithTaylor.
The Courageous is released in UK & Irish cinemas 5th September 2025 | TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2024