Interview: Laura Wandel – Adam’s Sake (L’Intérêt d’Adam)

For her sophomore feature, Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel continues her rigorous exploration of childhood as a site of ethical conflict, institutional pressure, and emotional vulnerability. Receiving a second invite to Cannes (nestled in the Critics’ Week section, while Playground before it was an Un Certain Regard standout), we take a deep, chaotic plunge we look at the systems—legal, medical, and familial with all the anxieties and moral framework trimmings with a tussle between mother and worker anchored by Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei respectively. L’Intérêt d’Adam (Adam’s Sake) looks at how the idea of care can be entangled and interfered with control, fear, and power. I had the chance to speak to Laura Wandel about connecting her field research with fiction, the idea of backstory for Vartolomei’s character and finding the film’s visual language.