Love According to Dalva
Cert: 15 | ★★★★✩

Parental abuse is not an easy subject to tackle on film but Belgian director Emmanuelle Nicot does it with great sensitivity in her debut Love According to Dalva.

Twelve-year-old Dalva (Zelda Samson) lives alone with her father Jacques. One evening, their home is stormed by the police who arrest him. Terrified and confused, she begs for him to be brought back. Instead, she’s given a physical exam and is then taken into care.

There, she becomes friends with her feisty roommate Samia (Fanta Guirassi) who teaches her, with spiky nonchalance, how to be a normal teenager.

Dalva also finds solace in her growing relationship with her amiable social worker Jayden (Alexis Manenti). As she begins to understand the significance of what she has suffered, she also starts thinking about her future, fearful of what it might hold.

Love According to Dalva. (2)

Zelda Samson (MK2 Films)

The result is a harrowing drama about what it must feel like to live entirely according to someone else’s rules.

When we first meet her, Dalva doesn’t understand her father’s warped love because it is the only one she has ever known.

This is the central message of Nicot’s film and she delivers with a realism and authenticity that makes you believe she already has a dozen films under her belt, so well does she understand her craft.

This young filmmaker is working in the tradition of fellow Belgians directors Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne, feted for their understated, socially conscious work. Small wonder that her debut won last year’s Golden Camera award at Cannes. It is a tour de force.