15-year-old Cobain does not have an easy life; not just because he has a name that evokes grim associations to drug addiction, depression and suicide, but because his mother, who gave him his name, lets this reference become very real. Mia, who is rootless, addicted to drugs and, to make matters worse, highly pregnant, calls Cobain her “little man” – and he in turn tries to protect his mother like a man, possibly even save her. But maybe he is more concerned about his sibling in Mia’s belly, whom he wants to spare his own fate of growing up without a family and without a home.
The artist and filmmaker Nanouk Leopold – who was born in 1968 in Rotterdam and who here in her sixth film adapts the first screenplay by her longtime producer Stienette Bosklopper – creates a subtle portrayal of a difficult mother-son relationship, where adulthood has nothing to do with age, the balance of power constantly changes, and life’s path is full of detours and blind alleys. Until Cobain – embodied by newcomer Bas Keizer in a fascinatingly multi-layered mix of stubbornness and compassion, mistrust and hope – finally takes the initiative and triggers a truly cathartic situation.
