If there’s such a thing as a “Sundance movie,” it’s typically about a dysfunctional family, demonstrably quirky, rigidly adhering to a three-act structure, possessing clever-clever needle drops. Is there a Cannes equivalent to the “Sundance movie”?
It’s certainly not as discussed as an archetype, but it appears there is: The “Cannes movie” is a French drama with light comedic notes, attuned to small moments, often related to a coming-of-age theme (at any age), a certain literary open-endedness, minimal camera movements, and no or little score. Not all of these attributes need to be present, but usually some combination is. This can be anything from “The 400 Blows” to 2024’s Directors’ Fortnight opener “This Life of Mine” to even something as visually extravagant as 2025’s animated film “Arco.”
Joséphine Japy’s debut feature “The Wonderers” is a perfect example of the form. Cinematic autofiction, it’s her reflective account of her own experience growing up with a disabled sister whose actual diagnosis remained elusive for years. Bertille (the name of the character in the film and of Japy’s real-life sister) developed an affliction where she would no longer speak or appear to understand the speech of others, and instead goes through life as if in deep thought all the time. Sometimes, she smiles and laughs to herself. Sometimes, she erupts in screams of agonizing pain. In one humorous moment in Japy’s film, Bertille, played by the non-disabled actress Sarah Pachoud, wanders off while having lunch with her family at an outdoor restaurant, sits on a random male patron’s lap, and steals some of his food, which she brings back to her own family’s table.
That moment captures the triumph of Japy’s film: Living with someone dealing with a severe disability is not always sturm und drang every moment. And “The Wonderers” is not out to make some statement about disability or living in a family with a disabled person — it’s simply trying to capture the emotion of Japy’s own experience, the highs and the lows. It’s obviously difficult, and in many ways defining, but it doesn’t have to be solely defining. Even as much as her sister’s experience has affected the life of Marion (Angelina Woreth), the stand-in for Japy herself.
Some details of Japy’s story are changed: She was already working as an actress and in her 20s when she finally found out Bertille’s diagnosis. In “The Wonderers,” her stand-in, Marion, is a senior in high school. But the emotional truth of what living with that uncertainty is like is something Japy powerfully captures. For years, Bertille’s family didn’t know for sure what her condition was. Which meant that treatment was impossible, and that the eventual outcome of her condition was uncertain, too. Could it be that she had a condition that could result in her dropping dead at any moment? We think we live in a time of such advanced medicine that ascertaining the cause of any condition is possible, but some diagnoses do remain out of reach.
Not knowing whether her sister or their daughter will live or not, or what to expect from any moment of being around her, has put Marion and her parents in a kind of ongoing limbo. Marion doesn’t really know how to live her own life. So much of her attention has been directed toward her sister that Marion decides to “embrace life” by embarking on a misguided romance with a man twice her age. Their parents, played by Pierre-Yves Cardinal and Mélanie Laurent, who gave Japy a role in her own directorial effort “Breathe,” have been affected similarly: Laurent’s character doesn’t allow herself to feel too much just in case she has to deal with a sudden loss at any moment, and Cardinal’s character hasn’t ever even told his work colleagues that he has a second daughter, thinking that knowledge of her disability might harm his career.
The first half of “The Wonderers” does feel a bit slack, like a sequence of scenes simply placed together rather than a narrative that flows. But by the end, this has become an affecting family drama, and one that taps powerfully into uncertainty as a way of life. It’s very much a first film, and the execution behind a number of moments — including one when Bertille brings food back to the table at the restaurant, which is told through dialogue more than captured in the camera — doesn’t match the strength of the ideas at hand. But if this is a “Cannes movie,” it is a Cannes movie par excellence, and hopefully one that’s just the springboard for a rich career behind the camera for Japy.
Grade: B
“The Wonderers” world premiered in Special Screenings at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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