--- title: "Petite Maman" year: 2021 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/petite-maman" fi1m_id: "petite-maman" imdb_id: "tt13204490" tmdb_id: 749004 wikidata_id: "Q105438136" fi1m_score: 88 critics_score: 85 critics_reviews: 28 published: "2026-09-30T21:05:57.116876+00:00" updated: "2026-09-30T21:05:57.667334+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Petite Maman (2021) Directed by Céline Sciamma · 1h 12m · MPA PG · Drama, Fantasy ## Identity Petite Maman - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/petite-maman - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** petite-maman - **IMDb ID:** tt13204490 - **TMDB ID:** 749004 - **Wikidata ID:** Q105438136 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13204490/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/749004, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105438136 **Fi1m score: 88** · Critics 85 from 28 reviews *In a sentence:* Every child suspects their mother was once eight; this one gets to check, and finds she was good company > Céline Sciamma’s 72-minute film about a girl who meets her own mother at eight is small, plain and stayed with us for days. It is so exactly made that you can sometimes see the joins, and we would not trade a minute of it. ## Synopsis Nelly (Joséphine Sanz), eight years old, has just lost her grandmother. She says goodbye to the other old women in the care home, then drives with her mother (Nina Meurisse) and father (Stéphane Varupenne) to the house in the woods where her mother grew up, to clear it out. Her mother shows her the old schoolbooks and points out where she once built a hut of branches, and then, one morning, she is gone. Left with her father and a great many boxes, Nelly wanders into the autumn woods and finds a girl her own age hauling a branch across a clearing. The girl says her name is Marion (Gabrielle Sanz). She has Nelly’s face, and when the rain comes she takes Nelly home to a house Nelly already knows. ## Review Céline Sciamma made [*Portrait of a Lady on Fire*](https://film.one/film/portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire) in 2019, a period film with a great deal of room in it, and then she made this: 72 minutes, a handful of speaking parts, a house, some woods and a U certificate. Nelly (Joséphine Sanz) is eight. Her grandmother has just died, and her parents have brought her to the house in the woods where her mother grew up, to empty it. Her mother (Nina Meurisse) cannot bear the place and leaves. Nelly goes into the trees and finds a girl her own age building a hut out of branches. The girl’s name is Marion (Gabrielle Sanz), which is also the name of Nelly’s mother, and she has Nelly’s face. The title means *Little Mum*. Sciamma does not treat any of this as a twist, and neither will we. It is one of the best things she has made, and we recommend it with a caveat we will come to. The film had us before the woods. It opens in a care home corridor, Nelly going from door to door saying goodbye to old women who are not her grandmother, and arriving at a stripped bed in an empty room. In the car afterwards she leans through from the back seat, feeds her mother crisps and juice and puts her arms round her neck, a child comforting an adult who has stopped pretending to be all right. We were undone by that, and we were not ten minutes in. Nothing in the scene asks for it. Sciamma simply lets a girl be kind and watches. Claire Mathon, who also shot *Portrait*, keeps the camera at Nelly’s height and the light at autumn’s, so the woods are yellow and brown and faintly damp and the house is the colour of old wallpaper. Lionel Brison’s production design has a harder job than it looks. The house Nelly is helping to empty and the house Marion lives in are the same rooms dressed twice, one half-packed and cold, one with a kettle on, and you register the difference before you understand it. Julien Lacheray cuts without hurry; scenes end when the girls have finished, not when a line lands. Para One’s music barely exists until one song, in the last stretch, and its arrival counts because everything before it has been wind and footsteps. The Sanz sisters are twins, and the whole film depends on how little they make of the situation. Nobody gasps. Marion asks for help with a branch, and they build the hut. They make crêpes and get flour on everything. They put on a play with wigs, an inspector and a countess, and take it exactly as seriously as children do. When Nelly works out who her new friend is, she is interested rather than frightened, which is how a child would be. Meurisse plays the grown-up Marion with a tiredness she never explains, Stéphane Varupenne is a warm and slightly useless father who lets Nelly shave his beard off, and Margot Abascal, walking with a cane through the same kitchen, gives the film its ache without a single big scene. Our caveat is that it is so precisely built you can sometimes see the joins. Once or twice the girls say things no eight-year-old says, lines about secrets, and about sadness and whose fault it is, and for a moment we heard the writer rather than the child. Grief here is talked about with great tact and shown hardly at all. Nobody is allowed to be ugly, or loud, or unfair. We admired the control, and now and then we wanted it to slip. It is a fable that is never once permitted to be frightening, and we would have liked one scene where the woods felt like woods. Among Sciamma’s own films it sits nearest to *Tomboy* (2011), which also watched a child over one summer and trusted the audience to keep up. It has none of the scale of *Portrait* and none of the noise of *Girlhood* (2014), and it does not want them. It also never runs short of things to do, which is more than we can say for a good many films twice the length. It is a U. Watch it with a child if you have one, and with your mother if you have one of those, and expect a conversation afterwards. Seventy-two minutes on the clock, and you will spend longer than that trying to picture your own parents at eight. *Fi1m score 88, published 30 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews lean strongly positive: 26 of the 28 recommend the film and none turns against it. The praise gathers in two places. First, the two young leads, twin sisters, whose easy rapport most critics name as the film’s centre and the reason its time-bending idea never feels forced. Second, Céline Sciamma’s restraint: small gestures, silent looks, a story told at a child’s eye level. Delicate, tender and small are the recurring words, all meant kindly. The reservations are few and mild. IndieWire warns that the quiet scale may disappoint anyone expecting a larger emotional payoff; Slant finds the restraint occasionally over-calibrated; Deadline thinks some of the girls’ dialogue too sophisticated for their age; Variety calls it slight, though meaningful. The spread is narrow, running from warm to rapturous, and the two mixed scores come from reviews we could only partly read rather than from any real dissent. If critics fault it at all, it is for there not being more of it. ## Straight answers **Is Petite Maman worth watching?** *Petite Maman* is worth watching for anyone who can sit still for 72 quiet minutes about a girl and her mother at eight, and we scored it 88. It is a U, small and plainly told, and it stayed with us for days. Our one reservation is that it is built so precisely you can sometimes hear the writer rather than the child. **How long is Petite Maman, and what is it rated?** *Petite Maman* runs 1h 12m and is rated PG by the MPA in the US. It is a drama and fantasy film. **Where can I watch Petite Maman in the US?** *Petite Maman* is available to rent from Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video from $3.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does Petite Maman compare to My Neighbor Totoro?** *Petite Maman* is the quieter and more precise of the two, and [*My Neighbor Totoro*](https://film.one/film/my-neighbor-totoro) the funnier and more generous. Both put children in a country house beside a wood with a mother out of reach, but Miyazaki gives his girls creatures and weather, where Sciamma gives hers a twin and a kettle. Take *Totoro* for a family evening; take *Petite Maman* if you want a conversation afterwards. **What should I watch after Petite Maman?** After *Petite Maman*, try [*My Neighbour Totoro*](https://film.one/film/my-neighbor-totoro) (1988, Fi1m 89): Two sisters, a country house, an absent mother and a wood that gives things back. Then [*The Spirit of the Beehive*](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive) (1973, Fi1m 87): A Spanish child takes a fable literally and the film is wise enough to follow her; and [*Aftersun*](https://film.one/film/aftersun) (2022, Fi1m 85): A daughter tries to see the young man her father was; the search hurts. ### Reviews we read (28) - **Radio Times**, Calum Baker (5/5): The critic describes the film as a tender, subtle exploration of childhood and memory. The review praises its delicate treatment of those themes. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-fa9fh6/petite-maman/) - **The Guardian**, Mark Kermode (95/100, inferred): Kermode gives the film an ecstatic verdict, calling it an astonishing and heartbreakingly hopeful cinematic poem. He particularly praises how its time-bending conceit lets children and parents understand one another across generations. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/nov/21/petite-maman-review-celine-sciamma-heartbreakingly-hopeful-fairytale-for-all-ages) - **Empire**, Helen O'Hara (90/100, inferred): O’Hara finds the film elegant, compelling, and enchanting, with a wistful but hopeful emotional core. She particularly praises Sciamma’s graceful visual storytelling and the natural performances of the young leads. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/petite-maman/) - **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (A-): Ehrlich finds the film delicate, enchanting, and emotionally resonant, though its quiet scale may disappoint viewers expecting a bigger emotional impact. He praises Sciamma’s subtle handling of the distance between parents and children, especially in small everyday moments. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/petite-maman-review-celine-sciamma-1234620853/) - **Little White Lies**, Adam Woodward (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film captivating and deeply affecting, a transportive story about childhood, loss and grief. They particularly praise the Sanz twins’ performances and the joy of the scenes they share. [Read](https://lwlies.com/festivals/petite-maman-berlin-film-festival-review) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (90/100, inferred): Chang finds the film quietly spellbinding and emotionally moving, praising its gentle, imaginative take on a mother-daughter bond. He singles out the Sanz twins’ casting and the film’s precise, beautiful images. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-04-21/petite-maman-review-celine-sciamma) - **Sight and Sound** (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an extremely small, precisely realized work that makes a moving meditation on love and grief. They praise its luminous filmmaking and the natural, joyful rapport between the young girls. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/petite-maman-celine-sciamma-forest-fairy-tale-mother-daughter-love) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (90/100, inferred): Lane calls the film a minor miracle, praising its imaginative reach and quiet emotional depth. He singles out the natural, unsentimental play between the young girls as especially charming. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/petite-maman-is-a-minor-miracle) - **Vulture**, Alison Willmore (90/100, inferred): Willmore praises the film as a perfectly scaled, quietly devastating miniature. She singles out the natural performances of the twin girls and the film’s delicate attention to childhood intimacy. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/movie-review-cline-sciammas-petite-maman.html) - **Slant Magazine**, Pat Brown (3.5/4): Brown finds the film wistful and powerful, though its restraint can feel over-calibrated. The review praises Sciamma’s visual economy and the way silent looks and absences convey the characters’ emotional lives. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/petite-maman-review-celine-sciamma/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (85/100, inferred): Rooney finds the film a beguiling, beautifully restrained continuation of Sciamma’s work. He especially praises the young performers’ naturalness and the film’s sensitive attention to small gestures. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/petite-maman-celine-sciamma-4142464/) - **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (85/100, inferred): Newland finds the film a wonderful, painful portrait of the mother-daughter bond. She praises its delicate, unsentimental treatment of childhood play and the generations of maternal connection. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/petite-maman-review-celine-sciamma-uk-film-cinema-release-1307569) - **Time Out**, Dave Calhoun (4/5): The review presents the film as poetic and touching. It praises Sciamma’s vision of childhood and mothering amid grief. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/petite-maman) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (Critic's Pick): Variety presents the film as a slight but meaningful, warmly intuitive exploration of the bond between a daughter and her mother. It praises the casting of twin sisters, whose real-life connection gives the girls’ friendship an immediate sense of complicity. [Read](https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/petite-maman-review-an-8-year-old-makes-a-special-connection-and-so-will-audiences-1234920118/) - **Film Comment**, Amy Taubin (70/100, inferred): Taubin presents the film as an elliptical, dreamlike fable about women’s intergenerational intimacy. The standfirst singles out those intimacies, but the provided text does not reveal further critical detail. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/petite-maman-celine-sciamma-review/) - **Screen Daily**, Wendy Ide (70/100, inferred): Ide presents the film as a delicate exploration of fragile mother-daughter bonds. The standfirst singles out that relationship as the film’s focus; the review’s fuller verdict is unavailable. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/petite-maman-berlin-review/5157693.article) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The page could not be accessed, so the critic’s verdict cannot be established. No specific element praised or criticized is visible in the supplied page text. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/21/movies/petite-maman-review.html) - **HeyUGuys** (100/100, inferred): The critic considers the film practically perfect and praises Sciamma as one of the greatest living directors. They single out the girls’ easy acceptance of their time-warped friendship and the film’s understanding of childhood. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/petite-maman-review/) - **The Skinny**, Jamie Dunn (★★★★★): Dunn praises the film as an emotionally rich, wise fairytale despite its slim story and brief runtime. He singles out the simple, joyful scenes of mother and daughter meeting as children. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/petite-maman) - **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (A-): Bonaime finds the film a staggeringly gorgeous and tender fairy tale about loss and family. He especially praises the playful, heartfelt friendship between Nelly and Marion. [Read](https://collider.com/petite-maman-review-celine-sciamma/) - **/Film**, Hoai-Tran Bui (9/10): The critic calls the film a lovely, richly simple tale of loss and grief. They praise the tender friendship between the two girls and the child actors’ ability to carry its emotional weight. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/626388/petite-maman-review-a-lovely-little-slice-of-loss-from-the-director-of-portrait-of-a-lady-on-fire-nyff/) - **NME** (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film’s modest, child-centred story of time and family quietly spellbinding, with resonance beyond its small-scale setting. They praise Sciamma’s meticulous creation of a miniature, fairytale-like world. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/petite-maman-review-3100167) - **Polygon**, Katie Rife (90/100, inferred): The critic finds the film sensitive, delicate, and deeply moving. She singles out the Sanz twins’ unembellished performances and the film’s expressive use of small gestures. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/23035890/petite-maman-review/) - **Deadline**, Todd McCarthy (85/100, inferred): McCarthy finds the film piercingly satisfying, unusually original, and emotionally perceptive. He especially praises the naturalistic performances of the Sanz sisters, while noting that some dialogue seems too sophisticated for the girls’ ages. [Read](https://deadline.com/2021/03/review-petite-maman-berlin-film-festival-international-critics-line-1234705612/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (85/100, inferred): Wilkinson finds the film a moving, hopeful exploration of grief and parent-child connections. She praises its finely observed details and autumn setting, which she says gives the story colour and hopefulness. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/petite-maman-2021-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **Paste**, Brianna Zigler (8.0/10): Zigler finds the film a stirring, profound meditation on grief and the bonds between parents and children. She especially praises the twin Sanz sisters’ performances and the film’s vivid cinematography. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/celine-sciamma/petite-maman-review) - **The Wrap**, Alonso Duralde (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film emotionally resonant and praises Sciamma’s sensitive storytelling. The performances of the two young sisters stand out for conveying the characters’ connection with remarkable intuition. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/petite-maman-film-review-celine-sciamma-neon/) - **The Playlist** (64/100, inferred): The page content is blocked, so the critic’s verdict cannot be determined. No specific praise or complaint is available from the accessible text. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/petite-maman-berlin-review-20210303/) ## Details - **Director:** Céline Sciamma - **Director:** Céline Sciamma - **Writer:** Céline Sciamma - **Cinematography:** Claire Mathon - **Editor:** Julien Lacheray - **Music:** Para One - **Production design:** Lionel Brison - **Producer:** Bénédicte Couvreur - **Cast:** Joséphine Sanz as Nelly; Gabrielle Sanz as Marion; Nina Meurisse as Mother; Stéphane Varupenne as Father; Margot Abascal as Grandmother; Florès Cardo as Dame maison de retraite; Josée Schuller as Dame maison de retraite; Guylène Péan as Dame maison de retraite - **Runtime:** 1h 12m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 6 May 2022 - **Genres:** Drama, Fantasy - **Budget:** $3 million - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iavDAuCkQEE ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $14.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-30.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BR, CA, CL, CO, DE, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PT, SE, SG, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Tomboy* (2011): Sciamma’s earlier summer with a child, watched just as closely and just as plainly. - *My Neighbour Totoro* (1988), Fi1m 89: Two sisters, a country house, an absent mother and a wood that gives things back. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/my-neighbor-totoro.md) - *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973), Fi1m 87: A Spanish child takes a fable literally and the film is wise enough to follow her. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive.md) - *Aftersun* (2022), Fi1m 85: A daughter tries to see the young man her father was; the search hurts. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/aftersun.md) - *Ponette* (1996): A four-year-old waits for her dead mother; French, unsparing, and led by a real child. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/petite-maman