A TRAVERS SON REGARD
2026 · 2m
Directed by Abel Souchaud, Célestin Ricol, Dalil Akalay
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
Tones: contemplative, tender, whimsical
At the market with his father, six-year-old Gustave, from the back of the cart, witnesses a scene of sincere love he knows he will never forget — and is certain that one day he too will be in love.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A six-year-old witnessing love at the market sounds like the kind of Hallmark setup everyone else would genuflect to, and somehow these three directors actually subvert it — the whimsy keeps it from becoming maudlin, and there's a real refusal to sentimentalize childhood here that I wasn't expecting.
A2-minute distillation of the epiphanic moment, shot with the precision of a painter's sketch — the composition from the cart's vantage point recalls the child-eye cinema of Koreeda and Vigo, and the restraint in not overselling the emotional architecture is exactly the kind of formal intelligence that deserves to be in conversation with the tradition.
The entire film pivots on the choice to hold Gustave's perspective literally — low in the frame, observing from behind — and that single spatial decision transforms what could be treacly into something genuinely unsettling and real, a child's confusion masquerading as certainty.