Milla

Milla

Valérie Massadian / 2017 / 128 minutes / France

In a delicate, even generous manner, Valérie Massadian’s new film begins as a story of two young lovers’ life on the fringes before shifting towards one of recent cinema’s finest depictions of motherhood. Milla and Leo live clandestinely, their meager furnishings and sustenance countered by a love for which there is neither a logic nor substitute. But such an existence will only last until forces of nature take hold. Where is there to go in its wake? Milla considers every dimension of love, loyalty, and grief through a poetic, startling vision that recalls the likes of Barbara Loden and Chantal Akerman while remaining without precedent. 


 

  • "Critic's Pick! Stunning. A major achievement, a film that is at once as delicate as it is strong, a fitting testament to motherhood, to survival."

    — Teo Bugbee, The New York Times
  • “Quietly daring. Lovely. A vivid portrait of young love and early motherhood.”

    — Gary Goldstein, LA Times
  • "Steely, sinewy, divergent, reactive, propulsive, frequently beautiful and contemplative. Pulsing with a life force whose energy oscillates between Fréhel and the Violent Femmes."

    — Andréa Picard, Cinema Scope
  • "Every framed shot in the film is masterful, vital and rich in significance, giving the film both a strength and unexpected power. A film that transforms the harshness of youth into something sublime."

    — Muriel Del Don, Cineuropa
  • "A quietly moving and unassumingly profound film about growing up, young motherhood, and life’s chance occurrences."

    — Jordan Cronk, Film Comment
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