A father–daughter dramedy with a distinctive flavour, this tale of dispiriting social services and living with disability is a true crowdpleaser.

Fourteen-year-old Lucie has a vivid imagination and a huge amount of responsibility. Following the death of her mother, she’s tasked with taking care of the household and her oddball father William (Benoît Poelvoorde, Man Bites Dog; Coco Before Chanel), who has multiple sclerosis – all while also going to school, working a part-time job and trying to write a novel. But when a social worker is scheduled to visit them, Lucie and William have to combine their creativity for a grand, ambitious performance: portraying a ‘normal’, functional household.

Director Olivier Babinet started out as a music video director, and his last film, Swagger (MIFF 2017), was a documentary chronicling the hopes and ambitions of 11 Parisian teenagers growing up in low socio-economic surrounds. There are echoes of that history in his latest film, which marries social realism with moments of stylistic flourish, just as there are shades of David Greig’s play The Monster in the Hall (which Babinet has loosely adapted here) and of Charlotte Regan’s MIFF 2023 standout Scrapper. Humorous and heartening, Normal is an offbeat story of family and finding strength through faith in one another.

“Brilliantly handling fantasy and emotion … Babinet succeeds in a funny, endearing and above all atypical film.” – aVoir-aLire