Mother, I Love You

Don’t let the sappy title scare you off. Winner of top prizes at the Berlin and Los Angeles Film Festivals, Janis Nords’ instantly engaging second feature combines coming-of-age drama with slow-burn thriller to tell the story of a boy who is unable to extricate himself from a growing web of lies. Raimonds lives with his single mother, Sylvia, an overextended doctor who struggles to split her time between patients and son. Left more or less on his own, the 12-year-old spends his time riding through town on his scooter and getting into mild mischief with his friend Peteris, whose mother works cleaning the houses of wealthy neighbors. The boys occasionally hang out in these luxurious digs while the owners are away, and though they know it is wrong, the thrill of trespassing has its attractions. Meanwhile, when an incident at school lands Raimonds in trouble, fear of his mother’s reaction leads him to hide the truth — setting in motion a cycle of increasingly bad choices, each one digging him deeper into a hole. The film’s portrait of preteen rebelliousness has been compared to Truffaut’s iconic The 400 Blows and the Dardennes’ The Kid with a Bike. But no degree in cinema studies is required to enjoy this captivating and emotionally profound film.