52 Films by Women Vol 9. 52. L’Intérêt D’Adam (Adam’s Sake) (Director: Laura Wandel)
Belgian writer-director Laura Wandel follows her 2021 debut,
Playground, with L’Intérêt D’Adam (Adam’s
Sake), another compact film focussed on the welfare of children. This
time, the action takes place not in a school but a hospital, the story
unfolding over a single day. Wandel examines how medical treatment and social
services becoming intertwined when a child’s health is endangered. In the film,
Wandel’s protagonist, concerned paediatric nurse, Lucy (Léa Drucker) treats not
just a four-year-old boy, the titular Adam (Jules Desart) but the family, in
this case, single mother Rebecca (Anamaria Vartolomei). If Lucy can change
Rebecca’s behaviour – the way in which she cares for her son – then she might
be able to keep the family together.
Tonally, the film has much in common with director Petra
Volpe’s recent release, Heldin (Late Shift) which is
set in a Swiss public hospital. In both, a nurse is called away to attend to
various patients, the aesthetic is naturalistic, there is mounting suspense,
the protagonist steps over the line and at a reflective point makes phone calls
to home. Both films feature families who want more – a private room in the case
of Heldin, a male doctor in L’Intérêt D’Adam. The
films show a public health service free at the point of use buckling under
dwindling resources, an issue that has become increasingly political. Private
sector healthcare providers are keen to exploit public sector failings in a
move that ultimately will require citizens to take out medical insurance that may,
in some cases, not cover pre-existing conditions. The danger is that a sizable
proportion of a country’s population will not be able to afford – and therefore
not receive - the treatment they need.
Wandel’s film is less concerned with this than a need to address
psycho-social problems. Adam’s father has moved on to another relationship,
works twelve hour days and has a baby to support. Adam is in hospital with a
fractured wrist, his left forearm in a blue plaster cast. We are introduced to
Adam as the long tube used to feed him is removed from his nasal cavity.
Rebecca, whose contact with the child is limited by court order owing to
evidence of child neglect, is trusted with feeding Adam naturally. The
rationale is to demonstrate a change in behaviour of both adult and child,
leading to a better outcome for both.
The question Wandel raises but does not resolve is, should a
hospital ward be an appropriate place for a social intervention? In the film,
the issue is not unique to Adam. We see a child whose family’s immigration
status is not yet decided, prefer the hospital bed to his own, in what is
inferred as shared accommodation. Lucy is compelled to arrange his discharge; the
hospital is not a hostel. In another scene, a patient’s sister begs Lucy not to
contact their Muslim mother, who would punish her child if she learned the
truth about why she was in hospital. Wandel shows paediatric wards as cluttered
and overwhelmed, patients’ families contributing to the agitation of parents
and staff.
Lucy’s interventions are exceptional to the point of audience
disbelief. We are never told why she believes that her actions will be
effective. Wandel minimises her backstory – we learn that she is also a single
mother, struggling to balance work and parental responsibility, but Lucy’s
daughter is a teenager with greater agency than Adam. We don’t discover why
Rebecca’s wider family – her parents or siblings - aren’t involved. We might
conclude that Rebecca has been ostracised for her choice of former partner or
by one blazing row too many, but Wandel doesn’t fill us in.
Pictured: Caring parent or a danger to her child? Single mother Rebecca (Anamaria Vartolomei) in a scene from the Belgian hospital drama, L’Intérêt D’Adam (Adam’s Sake), written and directed by Laura Wandel. Still courtesy of Memento Films (France).
Lucy’s first act of defiance against the court order is to
allow Rebecca more time to feed her child, beyond the half hour twice a day
originally mandated. Thirty minutes seems reasonable, even allowing for
techniques as ‘the train is coming to the tunnel’ (not used in this instance). Additional
time is needed to deal with the mother’s questions, in particular her request
that she spends the night with Adam. Having arranged for a nutritionally
balanced meal to be delivered to Adam, Lucy is called away. However, when
Lucy’s back is turned, Rebecca empties the full plate of food into a nearby bin
and starts feeding Adam from a tub containing a yoghurt type substance that she
brought with her. Lucy returns to
discover Rebecca’s defiant act. She orders another meal for Adam. In the
meantime, Rebecca wants to wash her child and sneaks him into a shower room. Rebecca
is intent on caring for her child in her own way, ignoring the warnings of
others. Rebecca tests Lucy’s – and the audience’s – sympathy, though Lucy understands
that Rebecca’s psychosis deserves attention.
Lucy’s colleagues are unsympathetic, asking why she is still
there. Lucy has an ally in her superior, Naïm (Alex Descas), who supports her
to a point. Like Lucy, he is pragmatic but follows procedure. He refers Rebecca’s
request to the probation service in order not to openly defy a court order. In
all the decisions made, the risk to Adam needs to be considered. After another
period in which Lucy leaves Rebecca alone with Adam, she discovers the pair
locked in a cubicle, security officers standing outside. Lucy sends security
away and coaxes Rebecca to open the door in order to reduce the stress
experienced by her son. Adam is sent back to his bed; Rebecca is escorted from
the ward. Then Adam disappears.
Wandel’s film puts Lucy – and the audience – through the
ringer. It is no spoiler to say that Rebecca makes matters worse resulting in a
gasp-making scene – the realism worked for me. This triggers protocol. Adam’s
father, Andreï (Timur Magomedgadzhiev) is called to the hospital, accompanied by
his partner, Selma (Charlotte du Bruyne) and their new-born baby – mother in
child initially waiting in the car. Rebecca’s action leads to both her and Adam
requiring assessment. Lucy asks for Rebecca to be held in Accident and
Emergency for one hour while she tries to make things better for the family, a
request reluctantly granted.
Wandel creates additional suspense when Lucy’s hospital pass
fails to work. Her behaviour prompts Naïm to send her home. However, Lucy makes
one last push. The film ends with Lucy and Rebecca challenging one another
outside the hospital, Lucy promising one thing and doing another. We question
whether she is right to do so.
While the aesthetic is realistic, Lucy’s behaviour is not.
We learn that Rebecca is barred from seeing her child until the next probation
hearing in ten days’ time – this is entirely unsurprising. However, Lucy’s
intervention involves what might be seen as unauthorised use of personal
information. The audience is partly turned into an employment tribunal; we
wonder, frankly, whether Lucy deserves to keep her job. I don’t think this is
Wandel’s intention, but the film reinforces the importance of procedure.
Adam’s Sake is a gripping watch, if
dramatically unconvincing. It represents cinema as a prompt for debate. The
performances are strong. When Adam is fighting for contact with his mother, and
rejecting his father, Jules Desart gives a hard stare that is the equal of
Paddington Bear. At one point, Adam’s father allows Adam to watch cartoons on
his phone but then receives a call from his partner. Lucy allows Andreï to use her
work phone, advising him to return it to the nurses’ station afterwards. This
is another example of Lucy bending procedure, giving Andreï access to a contact
list that should be protected.
Reviewed at Screen Six (‘Boutique Screen’), Filmhuis Den Haag, Netherlands, Sunday 8 February 2026, 20:00 screening
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