{"id":687,"date":"2026-05-26T08:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=687"},"modified":"2026-05-26T08:06:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T08:06:32","slug":"forever-your-maternal-animal-review-valentina-maurel-makes-a-hangout-movie-for-the-arthouse-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=687","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Forever Your Maternal Animal\u2019 Review: Valentina Maurel Makes a Hangout Movie for the Arthouse Crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tAbout halfway into \u201cForever Your Maternal Animal,\u201d a striking confession appears almost out of nowhere. The two main characters in the film, sisters in their early twenties, are sitting in a mall restaurant when the younger one says she has sex with the spirits who visit her room at night. She\u2019s so detailed in her description as to make her claim utterly believable. Up until that point, the film has been a drama about a family in quiet crisis \u2014 so when the older sister reacts in stunned confusion, she mirrors the audience, who may start rethinking what kind of film they are watching.<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn that ambiguous area between reality, tall tales and fantasy lies the temperament of this sophomore effort from Costa Rican-French filmmaker Valentina Maurel \u2014 whose Locarno-awarded 2022 debut \u201cI Have Electric Dreams\u201d was Costa Rica\u2019s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar. Additionally, the scene encapsulates the dynamic between the two sisters. The older Elsa (Daniela Mar\u00edn) is a pragmatist who keeps her cards close to her chest, never revealing much about what she\u2019s thinking. She\u2019s on a break from her life in Belgium, visiting her family in San Jos\u00e9. Or so she claims, as the visit seems to have no end in sight. <\/p>\n

\n\tOn the other hand, there\u2019s Amalia (Mariangel Montero), who is in a constant hypothetical confessional about her love life, her fears, and what she thinks about everyone and everything around her. Their mother Isabel (Marina De Tavira, an Oscar nominee for Alfonso Cuaron\u2019s \u201cRoma\u201d) is consumed with the reissue of a book of poetry\u00a0she wrote in her twenties. She has no time to manage Amalia, who\u2019s refusing to go to college, or to find out why Elsa mysteriously left her boyfriend back in Belgium.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThese three characters crash against each other and others in their orbit. Whether in conflict, in jest, in love, in silliness or in sex, they don\u2019t just occupy the same space, but constantly try to usurp each other. Elsa argues with her mother, Isabel doesn\u2019t like to be questioned and pretends everything\u2019s all right, while Amalia hangs with dodgy characters and makes claims that seem real only to her. <\/p>\n

\n\tWhile \u201cForever Your Maternal Animal\u201d does not have a plot per se, Maurel has written three compelling and distinctive characters. The screenplay is episodic, with scenes that do not naturally follow each other to form a coherent narrative, but rather come together to give the audience a full portrait of these three women. There are many hangout scenes: Elsa and Amalia visiting an old nanny of theirs who now has dementia; Amalia\u2019s dog trainer boyfriend and his questionable friends cooking for the sisters; Isabel confessing something personal to a taxi driver. Each of these encounters reveals more about the characters, showing how they think and what they desire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\tElsa might be considered a stand-in for Maurel, who also studied in Belgium. But while Elsa is quite withholding, Maurel is an intimate filmmaker who likes to stay close to her actors to show their innermost thoughts. Nicol\u00e1s Andr\u00e9s\u2019 camera is always in closeup or tight medium shot, moving from one actor to the other. The constant movement might make some audience members dizzy, yet its jitteriness signifies the anxiety and unease of the characters, both in their skin and with each other.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMarin anchors the film with an unexpected performance full of hard edges and soft feelings. Elsa is angry at her family but also clearly loves them deeply, and Marin plays both registers with icy cool and burning pain. Montero has an easy presence on screen that complements Marin\u2019s more anxious disposition, while as the loquacious Isabel, De Tavira gives \u201c\u201cForever Your Maternal Animal\u201d both its funniest and most heartbreaking moments.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cForever Your Maternal Animal\u201d \u2014 which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes, jointly winning Best Actress for its three leads \u2014 never quite builds toward a grand revelation or catharsis. Maurel is less interested in narrative payoff than in emotional texture. As the film drifts through awkward conversations, small tensions and intimate moments that reveal character more than they tell a story, the film occasionally threatens to dissolve under the weight of its own shapelessness. But the performances, and Maurel\u2019s observational eye, keep it compelling even in its messier stretches.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\u2018Forever Your Maternal Animal\u2019 Review: Valentina Maurel Makes a Hangout Movie for the Arthouse Crowd<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

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\t\t(Belgium-France-Mexico). Reviewed online, May 21, 2026. In Cannes Film Festival (Un Certain Regard). Running time: 107 MIN. (Original title: “Soy Tu Animal Maternal”).<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n

    \n
  • \nProduction:<\/strong>
    \n(Belgium-France-Mexico) A Wrong Men, Geko Films, Pimienta Films\u00a0production. Producers: Benoit Roland, Gr\u00e9goire Debailly. Co-producer: Nicol\u00e1s Celis.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nCrew:<\/strong>
    \nDirector, screenplay: Valentina Maurel. Camera: Nicol\u00e1s Andr\u00e9s. Editor: Bertrand Conard.\t\t\t<\/li>\n
  • \nWith:<\/strong>
    \nDaniela Mar\u00edn, Mariangel Montero, Marina De Tavira, Reinaldo Ami\u00e9n. (Spanish dialogue) \t\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Valentina Maurel’s ‘Forever Your Maternal Animal’ threatens to dissolve into nothingness, but is held together by three grounding performances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,718,719,720],"class_list":["post-687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-forever-your-maternal-animal","tag-marina-de-tavira","tag-valentina-maurel"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Forever Your Maternal Animal\u2019 Review: Valentina Maurel Makes a Hangout Movie for the Arthouse Crowd - Relocation Observer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=687\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Forever Your Maternal Animal\u2019 Review: Valentina Maurel Makes a Hangout Movie for the Arthouse Crowd - 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