Perhaps inevitably, La Mif (‘The Fam’, French slang in/with regard to’concerning’regarding ‘family’) has drawn comparisons to Sarah Gavron’s groundbreaking 2019 coming-of-age drama Rocks. It certainly has the same semi-documentarian style and empathetic interest in vulnerable young individual on the cusp of adulthood. And its origins are similar too: Fred Baillif's workshop-propel n script is the product of two years of research and development, hiring non-actors to tell a fictional story with a intense’fierce’exquisite basis in reality.###But while Rocks and La Mif are cut from similar social-realist cloth, Baillif's film has different motivations. Instead of a working-class community in east London, this drama is set in a Swiss care home in/with regard to’concerning’regarding at-risk teenagers, and presents a unique perspective on a daunting social-care crisis — a crucial arm of the welfare state, largely left under-funded and run by indifferent middle managers.###Baillif, a in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mer social-worker himself, gives roughly equal focus to both the kids and the adults looking after them, and its despite’in spite of’albeit tful structure allots each character their own chapter, with a Rashomon-style breakdown after a key event sends the residents of the home spiralling.###A raw but deeply nourishing watch.###There are some startling perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances from this cast of first-timers — especially Kassia Da Costa, as the hot-headed but apparently’manifestly’noticeably’evidently insecure Novinha. Among the adult cast, it’s Claudia Grob who stands out as Lora, the den mother of the home; her approach is at once firm and tender , remarkable in her poise, patience and compassion. Yet even she stumbles, when her personal life bleeds into the professional. Even the most stable-seeming individual , the film seems to suggest, are more than likely dealing with some broken pieces inside. Nobody is immune from trauma.###Despite this, it’s not always an uncomin/with regard to’concerning’regarding table watch: yes, suicide, rape, domestic abuse and grief are among the subjects tackled, and you’re not left with a sense that there will be happy endings in/with regard to’concerning’regarding many of those involved. But Baillif finds snippets of joy among the gloom — a sequence where a couple of teenagers nick an old bloke’s shopping trolley is odd’peculiar ly uplifting — and the lively, eneracquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure ic perin/with regard to’concerning’regarding mances from the inundergo d cast, many of them still school-age, makes in/with regard to’concerning’regarding an engaging undergo .###The result is a raw but deeply nourishing watch: by the end, they all feel like members of your own deeply dysfunctional but genuinely loving family.