A sweet young woman gently massages a small Asian man.

It’s Rosita, blonde/red-haired, curvy: they wake up embraced, he pays, and leaves.

She works in an industrial laundry and also as a steward in a football stadium: she assists disabled people and observes the spectators for security reasons.

She loves to play like a child with her friend Chelsea, who is 8 years old, so much so that she sometimes forgets to bring her back home.

Her body is depicted without shame, but never in a vulgar way: an obese woman, beautifully rounded, welcoming, abundant in every way.

Her generous body is always subject to the control of those who presume to know how she should behave.

Rosita is a woman/child and calls "mom"—considering her as such—a woman married to Roger, whom she feels has adopted her as a daughter.

She was abandoned by her mother, and when she became pregnant, she terminated the pregnancy on the advice of the other “mother,” who did not think she was capable of taking care of herself, let alone a child.

Every time Rosita meets a client, in addition to inserting into her vagina the sperm left in the condom, she takes a pregnancy test, which one day, fortunately or not, comes back positive.

At first, she keeps it a secret; she wants to know if it’s a boy or a girl. She tells Chelsea, and then the “mother,” who again tries to convince her to terminate the pregnancy by taking her to a hospital clinic.

But this time, despite her unstable job, debts, consumer credit she has accumulated, and estrangement from her adoptive parents, Rosita wants to prove, even in her uncertainty, that she can be a better mother than her own.

A sublime performance by the protagonist—hopefully, she will win an award.

A very interesting Flemish film: setting, actors, depictions of places and characters are extremely credible.

It is the portrait of a woman/child who cannot escape the need to love and be loved, who cannot move beyond the playful aspect of a child’s life, enjoying herself more with children than with adults; overflowing with love, a need for recognition, and a desire to prove to herself that she is capable of growing up and taking on the responsibilities of a mother.

Wannes Destoop tells a delicate and unusual story with great sensitivity, in an intimate and close-up way, capturing all the expressions and emotions of a woman grappling with her past, her destiny, and the choices that will change her life for better or worse. He does so by casting theater actress Daphne Agen in her first unforgettable cinematic performance.

Rosita is not a saint, as the “mother” says, but the title seeks to define her as such precisely to highlight the criticism of a definition that means nothing.

Rosita embodies the intensity and drama of a life stuck, framed, and defined by others, from which she feels the need to break free and emancipate herself with her large, soft, and beautiful body.

23-Nov-2024 by Beatrice