Adam’s Sake is a medical drama set almost entirely within a hospital. This short film evokes the spirit of the Dardenne brothers, where profound sorrow and faint hope quietly coexist. At its center are two women—Rebecca, a young mother raising her child alone, and Lucy, a nurse who wants to help her. They meet at the hospital, one as the guardian of a patient, the other as the head nurse. Four-year old Adam is hospitalized with a broken arm caused by malnutrition. Though the court restricts Rebecca’s visitation rights, young Adam needs his mother—and Rebecca, in turn, desperately needs her son. Lucy is the only one who truly cares. Rather than blindly follow the court’s ruling or the hospital’s protocol, Lucy worries for Adam’s well-being as both a nurse and a mother. Yet, goodwill and compassion have little power in the face of law and the system. Anamaria Vartolomei—of Happening (2021) and Mickey 17 (2025)—conveys Rebecca’s desperation with the frightened eyes of a wounded bird.
