'The Sixth Child': A tragic French story of parenthood, poverty - review

The French movie The Sixth Child, which opened in Israeli theaters on Thursday, brings to mind the famous line from Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game: “The awful thing about life is this: everyone has their reasons.”

The Sixth Child, directed by Leopold Legrand, is an intricately constructed tragedy about two couples who choose to make an awful but understandable decision, and they all have their reasons. What’s brilliant about it is that, as heartrending as this story is, there are no obvious villains – other than a heartless economy and an unfeeling adoption bureaucracy – and no easy answers.

As I watched the movie, my loyalties kept shifting among the characters, and I wasn’t always sure where it was going – one of the highest compliments I can give any movie.

What is The Sixth Child about?

The movie starts out showing the tough lives of Franck (Damien Bonnard, who can currently be seen in Poor Things) and Meriem (Judith Chemla, who starred in the Israeli film The End of Love), a Roma couple struggling to make ends meet as they raise five children in a trailer park, which they have chosen because it is near good schools.

Franck is a scrap metal dealer, and when his partner picks a fight, he, too, gets in trouble with the law. Julien (Benjamin Lavernhe, who recently appeared in Jeanne du Barry and who was also in The Sense of Wonder), the lawyer Meriem hires to get him out of the jam, is understanding and makes a payment plan. To thank him, Franck insists that Julien and his wife, Anna (Sara Giraudeau, one of the stars of The Bureau), who is also a lawyer, stop by for a beer.

Anna isn’t interested at first but then is charmed by their children, and it turns out that she can’t have any of her own. They have tried IVF several times and it failed, and psychologists have given her damning reports when they have tried to adopt, essentially saying she wants a baby too badly.

A little while later, when Franck comes to Julien’s office unannounced, Julien thinks it is because he needs more help with his case. But it’s not that: Meriem is pregnant with what will be their sixth child. They are devout Catholics and an abortion is out of the question, but they are already packed like sardines into their trailer. Franck desperately needs money for a new van to replace the one that was damaged in an accident; without it, he can’t support the family. So he proposes an unholy deal: their baby in exchange for money to buy a new van.

Julien quickly shuts him down: This would be human trafficking and highly illegal. But when he tells Anna about the incident, she is desperate to go for it. They float the idea of a legal deal: an open adoption, where they would raise the child, but Franck and Meriem would still be the parents and would be in the child’s life. But Meriem can’t bear this idea. She would much prefer to give the baby to this couple and walk away.

At this point, Julien is desperate to shut down the whole idea because he knows that to pay the couple for their baby would be wrong, legally and morally. But Anna can’t let go of this dream of raising this baby, and Meriem and Franck have decided they will give the baby up for adoption in any case, since they are in such dire financial straits. Anna’s determination over this baby drives a wedge between her and her husband. Meanwhile, Meriem is despondent about the idea of giving up this baby but know she cannot give another child a good life.

THE STORY plays out like a Greek tragedy, in which each character follows his own destiny, no matter how much sorrow it will bring. You wish for a happy ending for all of them, knowing it isn’t possible.

At first I thought that the two lawyers would be portrayed as vile, predatory rich people, but the movie goes in a different direction. They are portrayed as deserving of compassion because of their infertility, and if the film is anyone’s story, it’s Anna’s.

While it’s clear that capitalism and anti-Roma racism have put Franck and Meriem into an impossible situation, they have a warm, loving family, which Anna and Julien don’t have. There is no explanation given for the fact that they can’t have children, but it is devastating for Anna and, to a lesser extent, for Julien.

The four actors work well together, and all give good performances, but the standout is Giraudeau as Anna. It is she who drives the action and can’t give up, willing to sacrifice her upper-class life to become a mother.

There have been many movies about parents who fight over children, such as several films based on the Baby M and similar cases, and many fall into clichés.

The Sixth Child avoids these pitfalls, although toward the end, some of the resolutions feel too neat. But it’s still a movie where you identify with everyone. You keep turning over their options in your mind, and will likely think about the characters and the story long after the movie ends.