Belgian director Laura Wandel’s drama Adam’s Sake, which opened Cannes Critics’ Week this year, stars Léa Drucker as a nurse working on an understaffed pediatric ward who finds herself conflicted when a malnourished 4-year-old is placed in her care.
She is confronted with his mother Rebecca, played by Happening and Being Maria star Anamaria Vartolomei, who refuses to leave his side, despite a judge’s order restricting access. For the sake of the child, the veteran nurse will do everything in her power to help this mother in distress.
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Wandel embedded in a real-life children’s ward at the Saint-Pierre hospital in Brussels as part of the writing process for the film.
“This was where the story really originated. I’m drawn to hospitals and children’s wards in general because they’re a microcosm of society … it all came from my observations there, especially of the complexities for the hospital staff as they cared for patients both medically and socially,” she explained.
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Drucker, a Cannes regular whose credits include Catherine Breillat’s Last Summer and Lukas Dhont’s Close, revealed she had partly been drawn to the role for family reasons.
“My father was pediatric doctor in a hospital, so it’s very familiar to me … my grandfather was a doctor, and my aunt was a nurse … the medical life is something which is very alive in my own life,” she said.
Adam’s Sake is Wandel’s second feature after debut Playground, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2021 and went on to be submitted as Belgium’s entry for the 94th Academy Awards.
The film is produced by Dragons Films, Les Films du Fleuve. Les Films de Pierre, Lunanime, France 3 Cinéma, RTBF, Be Tv & Orange, Proximus and Shelter Prod. Indie Sales is handling international sales. Memento has French rights.
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