In Safe Hands

In Safe Hands (Pupille, 2018) is a French drama by Jeanne Herry that you can watch online on iFILM. On the day he is born, a boy named Théo is handed over anonymously by his mother right at the maternity ward. French law gives her two months to change her mind. During that fragile window, the newborn passes into the care of the state while the system quietly decides his future.

There are almost no big events here — the whole story lives in the people doing the work. Jean, a seasoned foster carer from child services (Gilles Lellouche), takes the baby into his home for the interim. Social workers handle the paperwork and the delicate conversations. And somewhere close by waits Alice (Sandrine Kiberlain), a woman who has spent ten years trying to become a mother and now sits on the adoption list. The camera moves calmly from one life to the next, linking them into a single chain of care.

Élodie Bouchez and Miou-Miou round out the ensemble. It's a hushed, deeply humane film about a profession we rarely see on screen — the hands that hold a stranger's child until a family is found. Made for anyone who loves restrained European drama with no melodrama and no fakery. Stream In Safe Hands (2018) online on iFILM.