Kika

Brussels social worker Kika (Manon Clavel) starts out as a rom-com ingénue, blowing up her life for a shot at happiness with a new man, before a personal tragedy turns her into a Dardennes heroine, a single mother scrabbling for the money to provide for her young daughter. Soon enough she’s making her living as a novice dominatrix, while still maintaining a middle-class domestic life—a dual existence of respectability and precarity common to many people hustling, in one way or another, to fill the gaps in an inadequate social safety net. In her first fiction feature, which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week, Alexe Poukine retains the naturalism and psychological acuity of her previous documentaries that dealt with trauma and recovery, as she shows us the world of sex work through newcomer Kika’s eyes. The film is inquisitive and tonally flexible, acknowledging the awkward comedy as Kika navigates new kinks, while mounting a serious exploration of the contested border between consent and economic necessity. A nuanced study of the personal and political, Kika showcases one woman’s journey into new realms of self-knowledge and social consciousness, conveyed with brilliant subtlety in a fearless performance from Clavel, who earned a César Award nomination for Best Female Newcomer.