‘Peau à Peau’ Review – A Postpartum Nightmare [Fantasia 2025]

There’s a telling moment around halfway through writer/director Chloé Cinq-Mars’s Peau à Peau (Nesting) that cuts to the heart of the film. The main character Pénélope (Rose-Marie Perreault), a new mother who is sleep deprived and overwhelmed caring for her new baby, confesses that her point of view has shifted. Previously when she saw a mother and baby out on the street, she would only really see the latter. Now that she has a newborn of her own, all Pénélope can see is the mother: tired, struggling, and wearing baggy clothes to hide her body.

It’s a moment that hangs over much of Peau à Peau, a French-Canadian film that follows Pénélope as she struggles with postpartum. In addition to all of the physical symptoms of being a new mom, she also feels abandoned by her musician boyfriend, Gaspard (Simon Landry-Desy). He’s in the habit of staying out late, smoking pot, and sleeping through the night while she cares for their crying child. Throw in latching struggles and Gaspard’s unsupportive mother, who believes Pénélope should switch to formula so she can get a job, and Pénélope is dealing with a lot.

Well…things are about to get worse.

On a late-night walk with baby Lou, Pénélope finds herself in the middle of an armed robbery at the local dépanneur (convenience store). Cinq-Mars shoots the sequence in a disorienting fashion: Pénélope has left Lou in his baby carriage in another aisle when she’s confronted by an armed assailant in a red hoodie. Pénélope ignores the order to get on the ground, rushing back to collect her baby in her arms before sinking face down to the floor. Only then does she realize that she recognizes the perpetrator: it’s her younger sister, Charlotte (Marie Bélanger).

The problem is that her sister is dead.