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Adam’s Sake at Film Fest Gent
In Adam’s Sake, Wandel portrays a pediatric ward where nurse Lucy (Léa Drucker) is tasked with caring for four-year-old Adam, admitted with severe malnutrition. Adam’s mother Rebecca (Anamaria Vartolomei) refuses to leave his side despite a court order. As Lucy struggles to provide care for both mother and child, everyone risks becoming entangled in the pressures of an overburdened welfare system.
To immerse herself in the subject matter, Wandel spent three weeks shadowing the pediatric department of Brussels’ UMC Sint-Pieter hospital. As in Playground, she focuses on children’s safety and wellbeing within a sharply defined social and institutional setting. But in Adam’s Sake she moves beyond the perspective of the children themselves and fixates on the role of nurses and healthcare workers, as key figures in society.
© Bas Bogaerts“More than domination, I think it’s hierarchical relationships that I wanted to explore in this film. [...] In the end, by showing different hierarchies, like between doctors and nurses or between medical and administrative staff, I’m portraying systemic violence. An accumulation of violence that, in the end, puts children on the very bottom rung of the ladder because they are powerless to decide for themselves.”
Laura Wandel - director
With her recognisable, frenetic camera work, Wandel plunges viewers into the exhaustion and urgency of hospital life. In long, dynamic tracking shots, she captures how characters mold their moral convictions within the restrictive framework of our healthcare system. Her gaze, which is never distant or deprecating, is defined by a profound sense of empathy and care. Even so, Wandel herself eschews being labeled as political or activist: “My role is to ask questions, not to answer them,” thus, one of Belgium’s most compelling new voices on the international stage.
Film Fest Gent and Wandel share a special connection: in 2021, her debut Playground was selected for the Official Competition shortly after winning the FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes. Earlier this year, Adam’s Sake opened Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique, the prestigious sidebar organized by the French Union of Film Critics.
Featuring performances by Laurent Capelluto and Charlotte De Bruyne, the film was produced by Les Films du Fleuve - the Dardenne brothers’ production company - in co-production with Dragons Films, Les Films de Pierre and Lunanime. It was realized with support from the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the VAF/Film Fund of Flemish Minister of Culture Caroline Gennez, the Belgian federal government’s Tax Shelter system, and the European Union.
Adam’s Sake will premiere at Film Fest Gent on 9 October, 2025 and will be released in Belgian theaters on October 15 by distributor Lumière.
The 52nd edition of Film Fest Gent runs from 8 to 19 October, 2025. The full programme will be announced on 18 September.
