Nicolas imagines other worlds, far from his daily routine. He prefers to dream of Ulysses or Jack London’s travels. Imagining that he, too, will be able to travel far away. Nicolas is Sabrina’s son, but he was taken from his mother and placed in a foster home. The days pass, punctuated by events, such as seeing his mother or going to the woods with his friend Saef. But Nicolas continues adrift.
In 2001, Marie Dumora unveiled her first feature, Avec ou sans toi, a one-year immersion centred on four institutionalized children, among them Belinda and Sabrina, two sisters aged between 9 and 11. In 2004, with Emmenez-moi, the director became interested in Belinda‘s boyfriend before finding Sabrina, who had become a very young mother at the age of 15, in Je voudrais aimer personne (2010). In 2017, she decided to redesign the three stages of young Belinda’s life (IndieLisboa 2017), a fascinating documentary Boyhood. A filmmaker of the intimate, Marie Dumora excels in the art of letting the sequences live. With small touches, the whole picture is composed around the emotional bond between a son and his mother, which resonates with a family and sociological heredity charged (“we, we have not achieved much in life”, confesses Sabrina to Nicholas ). A weight that the author knows how to subtly lighten by never judging her characters, but on the contrary, by observing them attentively, with tenderness and without manipulating the emotions. A humble approach, rich in humanity, going hand in hand with a formal mastery which makes Far From You I Grew a film capable of being both hard and soft, like this song listened to by the reconstituted family: “Do not regret anything because you know it well that in a life, there are always worries. I have hope that one day, the wheel will turn”. (Mickäel Gaspar)
