Petite Maman: parents' guide
Best for ages 7 and up. Rated PG for some thematic elements and brief smoking.
A gentle, dreamlike French film (with subtitles) for thoughtful kids and their families: after her grandmother dies, 8-year-old Nelly helps clear out the house and meets a girl her own age in the woods who turns out to be her mother as a child. There's no violence, swearing or romance. The main things to know are its steady focus on grief, a mother who seems sad and briefly leaves, and one short cigarette. The quiet pace and time-bending story may lose younger viewers, but the content is fine from about 7.
What's in it
Violence
NoneNo violence. The two girls act out a homemade murder-mystery play with a pretend stabbing, and a character mentions once being scared of her father.
Language
NoneNo profanity, insults or crude language; reviewers note none at all, and the girls speak kindly to each other.
Sex and nudity
NoneNo romance, kissing or nudity. In the girls' homemade play, one character has had a baby with a man who didn't know about it, a passing grown-up plot point kids may not notice.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
ModerateNelly's father smokes a cigarette in one short scene after she tells him it's bad for him. An adult sips wine, and a drawing shows a fox smoking.
Scary or intense scenes
MildNothing scary beyond a shadow on the wall that frightens Nelly at night. Grief over a grandmother runs throughout, Nelly wakes to find her mother has left, and a child worries about an upcoming operation.
Worth talking about
Nelly gets to meet her mom as a kid. What would you want to ask your parents about the time when they were your age?
On our lists
Similar picks around 7+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, bbfc.co.uk, the MPA, Rotten Tomatoes, childrenandmedia.org.au. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.