‘Kika’ review: A grieving woman turns to sex work in Belgian Critics’ Week debut

Dir: Alexe Poukine. Belgium, France. 2025 110mins

Necessity is the mom of reinvention in Kika. The primary feature-length narrative from French-born, Belgium-based filmmaker Alexe Puokine follows a younger social employee who takes determined measures to stay solvent after her life is upended by tragedy. A finely calibrated efficiency from Manon Clavel retains viewers sympathy because the movie navigates some difficult gear modifications from romantic charmer to one thing darker and extra disturbing.

A finely calibrated efficiency from Manon Clavel retains viewers sympathy 

Poukine’s earlier shortform  work, together with That Which Doesn’t Kill (2019) and Palma (2020), has centered on understanding struggling and trauma. In Kika, which debuts in Cannes Critics Week, she initially beguiles us with a meet-cute romantic arrange that’s straight out of the Billy Wilder playbook. Social employee Kika (Clavel) has a tireless dedication to enhancing the lives of others. One night in Brussels, she takes her daughter’s bike to a restore store and winds up locked in with worker David (Makita Samba). Pierre Desprats’ jazzy soundtrack, utilising a plaintive tenor saxophone, captures the craving of their first encounter. 

A love at first sight attraction sparks a whirlwind romance that prompts Kika to depart husband Paul (Thomas Coumans). Clavel and Samba make a really likeable couple and Poukine permits them the tender moments that encourage us to hope that love will triumph. Quickly, nevertheless, a tragedy leaves a pregnant Kika and daughter Louison (Suzanne Elbaz) struggling to pay their payments.

It additionally deflates the movie for a interval, till Poukine reveals its new path. Now in dire straits, Kika seems as susceptible because the folks she as soon as sought to assist. An earlier dialog with one claimant has planted a seed that grows in parallel with Kika’s desperation. The lady revealed that she was making straightforward cash by promoting her dirty underwear for €100. The concept turns into a lifeline for Kika, as she places all her grief to at least one facet and takes a tentative step into the profitable world of intercourse work.

Clavel’s Kika is a deer-in-the-headlights harmless on this new world. Her awkward method and inexperience hardly ever appear to disappoint easily-pleased prospects. She by no means appears to be in any actual hazard and stays curious somewhat than judgemental. Returning residence to her dad and mom and daughter permits her to construct a double life in a situation with echoes of Belle De Jour (1967).

Poukine steeps the movie in social realism, making us conscious that Kika is surrounded by hardship in a rustic the place there’s a 10 yr await social housing. The filmmaker additionally embraces her documentary roots in an strategy that appears like a inexperienced persons information to BDSM. There’s a great deal of gentle humour as Kika learns concerning the huge array of particular person wishes and the bounds of what she is ready to supply. She additionally finds a mentor in skilled dominatrix Rasha (Anael Snoek) who invitations her alongside to an older shopper who needs to be handled as a child – together with sitting in a excessive chair and having his diaper modified. 

Kika at all times appears to maintain her feelings in examine, by no means actually feeling something. A suppressed chuckle or startled look are the extent of her reactions to the ache and humiliation she is now requested to manage. The movie, too, carries a way of discretion. There are issues we by no means see or know and a few characters are sketchily conceived – particularly Kika’s eternally understanding ex-husband who appears to float on the sidelines. Poukine has a passion for fading to a stark, lingering black. Finally, the dam bursts and Kika takes one step additional in the direction of self-realisation in an expertly-orchestrated however brutal sequence.