Wicked, calculating, vicious… The stepmother has always had bad press, especially in fairy tales. These stories do not spare motherless children: Hansel and Gretel are abandoned in the forest, Cinderella is mistreated, while Snow White narrowly escapes assassination attempts. All because of their father’s new wife. These tales gave birth to the emblematic character of the stepmother.
However, despite this dark reputation, reality does not always prove to be as cruel as fiction. Some mothers-in-law can show love, caring, and devotion to their stepchildren. With sometimes relative success…
This is precisely what “Stepmother or Good Fairy” offers us, a moving episode of Louie Media’s “Passages” series, shot, edited and scripted by Bénédicte Gilles, which explores the complexities of a family problem in the midst of reconstruction in the wake of the character of Ema. “I chose them, they maybe chose me less…” As Ema tries to forge a path as a mother-in-law to a grieving family, her husband seems rather reluctant, especially Louise, the eldest…
“A great adventure”
At the age of 7, Louise’s life changed tragically when her mother, Delphine, died suddenly, at age 35, of pancreatic cancer. Jean, his father, then finds himself alone with three children. The already fragile home is then disrupted by a devastating encounter between the father and a woman with an aggressive and violent temper. Louise, the eldest, feels left out and struggles to find her place in a chaotic household, deprived of the comforting presence of a mother figure. “I have a lump in my stomach all the time,” she said.
A few years later, Jean meets Ema and love resurfaces. However, the scars of the past and mistrust persist. How do you make someone else’s children your own, Ema wonders. She bravely embarks on a quest to find her place as a stepmother, navigating the troubled waters of family. For Louise, the challenge is to open her heart to a new maternal figure without denying the memory of her mother. “I feel like it’s erasing part of my history,” she says.
Ema must juggle her desire to fit in and thrive as a mother-in-law while respecting the children’s emotional space. “It’s not always an easy adventure, but it’s a great adventure,” she said.
The voices of the protagonists, skilfully alternated, offer an authentic perspective and create a warm atmosphere that plunges us into the heart of the story, inviting us to immerse ourselves in family intimacy. The good fairy is Bénédicte Gilles.
