Directed and co-written by Fred Baillif, LA MIF (The Fam) is an intimate, naturalistic drama that offers a glimpse of life within a residential care home for at-risk teenage girls. The powerful and moving film received its world premiere at this year's Berlin International Film Festival, winning the Grand Prix for Best Film in the Generation 14plus competition. The film has also won a variety of major awards at numerous film festivals including the Zurich Film Festival and Belgium's Namur FIFF 2021, and recently received its UK premiere at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival.
LA MIF (Mif is the French slang word for family) is set in a residential care home in Geneva, where a group of teenage girls from difficult backgrounds live as a community with social workers. Sharing joy and pain, the forced "family" experience creates unexpected tensions and intimacies. When an incident arises, the fall-out reveals the weaknesses of the outdated contemporary social care system.
The film was developed over a period of two years by Fred Baillif, a former social worker, with the collaboration of non-professional actors made up of residents and staff of a children's home. The ensemble cast includes Claudia Grob, Anaïs Uldry, Kassia Da Costa, Joyce Esther Ndayisenga, Charlie Areddy, Amélie Tonsi, Amandine Golay and Sara Tulu, who deliver moving and dynamic performances.
Exploring its characters' stories individually and collectively, LA MIF is an empathetic and emotional examination of the juvenile care system, ploughing the line between documentary and fiction.
