Life is ours

When Roméo (Jérémie Elkaim) and Juliette (Valérie Donzelli) meet for the first time, it is a moment full of magic, followed by the beginning of a wonderful love story. The young couple is happy, their time together filled with carefree love. When their son Adam is born a few months later, Roméo and Juliette's happiness seems perfect. But then reality catches up with the young parents in a particularly cruel way. But the two are not so easily defeated. Unlike their famous namesakes, Roméo and Juliette don't want to simply surrender to their fate and are ready to fight for their deserved happy ending...

With Life Belongs to Us, Valérie Donzelli presents an extremely personal film. That's because the screenplay, which Donzelli co-wrote with her film partner and former life partner Jérémie Elkaim, tells the authors' true story. It is a very sad story in itself, a difficult fate that Donzelli and Elkaim had to face with their son and a struggle for the outcome of which the two had to pay a high price.

It is all the more astonishing that the film, despite the subject matter, has not become a melancholy consternation cinema. Donzelli has created a very emotional, yet delightfully light, charming and above all life-affirming drama that makes the viewer laugh, cry and dream in equal measure. Although one has to get used to the sometimes somewhat unusual staging, which sometimes includes spontaneous singing by the main actors, once this has been achieved it is almost impossible not to succumb to the special charm.

Scenes that radiate infinite sadness with harsh realism alternate again and again with very funny moments, followed by scenes full of poetry, romance and beauty. With this kaleidoscope of emotions, Life Belongs to Us impressively shows how cruel life can be, but that it is worth fighting for happiness even in the most difficult hour. Accompanied by an unbelievably versatile soundtrack that perfectly matches the respective scenes, Valérie Donzelli has succeeded in creating an unusual piece of feel-good cinema that lovers of European art house films of a very special kind should not miss. Absolutely recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp