MIFF NOTES: Don't Call Me Son (2016, Dir. Anna Muylaert)

Part of me wants to call Don't Call Me Son, Anna Muylaert's follow-up to The Second Mother, The Second Mother Part II, or something along those lines. Not that there are any narrative connections between the two films, just that here Muylaert retreads similar ground with a secondary parental relationships (and class dynamics) for a self-assured teen.

But before where there was a defiant teenage push for class progression, here the additional mother (and father and brother) is forced upon the young protagonist, Pierre (Naomi Nero). He's unceremoniously introduced to his birth parents when it is uncovered that his mother (Daniela Nefussi, who also plays the second mother) stole him at birth. Suddenly thrust into a new middle-class existence, Pierre (now nominally Felipe) lashes out, as teenagers do, ferociously fast-tracking a previously damped down trans* identity.

While there's a lot that feels incomplete in Don't Call Me Son, Muylaert does well to bed the narrative reticence into Pierre's teenage persona. He's not willing to talk shit through so neither is she. And while this is frustrating for most of the film's runtime, and sometimes even presents as underdevelopment, the payoff as the film finally gives way is impressive.

Even if it is only for a single shared moment.

★★★

Trailer:

Don't Call Me Son screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.