Coming out is hard. Coming out when your parents think you're a doctor? Lunar levels of difficulty.
A young woman tries to ease herself out of the closet without terrifying her parents in the process in this comedy-drama. The year is 1969, and Sacha (Marie Bunel) is a young Belgian woman living in Canada. Sacha's family sent her to Canada to attend medical school, but she hasn't had the heart to tell them that she's dropped out of college to devote herself to her new interest in photography. Sacha also hasn't told her parents that she's a lesbian -- and that she has a new girlfriend, Odile (Macha Grenon). Odile is tired of being kept a secret, and insists that Sacha tell her parents the truth before American astronauts land on the moon in a few months -- or else. Sacha flies home to Belgium for a visit, planning to come clean to her folks, but she discovers they've arranged a huge welcome home party for the entire neighborhood. With everyone so excited that the soon-to-be-doctor is paying them a visit, Sacha wonders when the time will be right to give her family the news.
Acting
Tsilla Chelton as grandmother Lea steals every scene with zero effort.
Costume
1969 fashion that actually looks lived-in, not costume department cosplay.
Writing
The moon landing countdown as coming-out deadline is genuinely clever structure.
Director
Chris Vander Stappen
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This 2001 Belgian film is part of a wave of early 2000s European queer cinema that got completely overshadowed by American indie darlings—it's basically the Belgian cousin of 'Kissing Jessica Stein' but with more family trauma.
Director Chris Vander Stappen never made another feature after this, which feels criminal given how she captures that specific suffocation of returning to your childhood bedroom as an adult.
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