Fanmi
2021 · 14m · Canada
Directed by Sandrine Brodeur-Desrosiers, Carmine Pierre-Dufour
Genres: drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
A Haitian-Canadian mother and daughter navigate the weight of unspoken grief and love during a visit, as the daughter copes with her partner's suicide and the mother awaits results of medical tests for a serious illness.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Haitian-Canadian mother and daughter, two illnesses neither can name out loud. The silences-as-third-character thing is true of every quiet drama ever made — fine, but I've heard this pitch before.
Brodeur-Desrosiers and Pierre-Dufour making silence the third character, with Haitian Creole and French marking the family's cultural texture — this is the Maïmouna Doucouré mode of restrained intergenerational portraiture. Fourteen minutes, two women, considerable promise.
Treating the silences between mother and daughter as a third character, with Haitian Creole and French both threading through the family dynamic — that's the kind of formal restraint that makes 14 minutes of grief-and-illness feel earned. The bilingual texture is specificity, not garnish.
Reviews
A mother/daughter drama where the silences weigh heavier than the dialogue, the biggest challenge of bringing Fanmi to the screen comes in capturing what is unsaid, as the silences take on a presence almost like a third character.
The heart-breaking last chance for a mother and daughter to come closer together. This timely short has qualified to be considered for the 95th Academy Awards after winning Best Narrative Short Film at Provincetown.
Festivals
- Toronto International Film Festival 2021
- Provincetown International Film Festival 2022, Best Narrative Short
- Aspen Shortsfest 2022
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2022