Petit Samedi review – intimate exploration of the loneliness of drug addiction

The loneliness of addiction – and the toll it can take on an individual’s psyche and their relationships – is intimately explored in Paloma Sermon-Daï’s unassuming yet poignant documentary. In his small Belgian village, 43-year-old Damien Samedi has been known as Petit Samedi since childhood, an endearing nickname that bittersweetly reflects his state of arrested development. Having struggled with drug dependency for most of his adult life, Damien attempts to turn over a new leaf with therapy and the support of his mother, Ysma.

Documentaries often rely on handheld cameras to relay immediacy or intimacy; Petit Samedi, fortunately, is a welcome relief. Shot like still tableaux, evoking the style of posed family photos, every day conversations between mother and son gently unfold over the dinner table or in front of the TV. Keeping a respectful distance from its subjects, the film doesn’t sensationalise Damien’s plight, even when glimpses of his heroin habit quietly show up on screen. Here, addiction is not treated as a spectacle, but rather an alienating routine from which Damien works hard to escape.

As Damien speaks about his violent father, Ysma also wonders if, grief-stricken over the death of her sister during her pregnancy, her mental state had contributed to his later turmoil. In spite of these attempts to analyse Damien’s condition, the film also observes the solitary bubble of addiction, which no easy explanations, or even a mother’s unconditional love, can penetrate. The most moving moments show Damien listening to old phone messages, on which his younger self can be heard. Living in those recordings and home videos is “petit Samedi,” the child his mother desperately tried to protect and a state of innocence to which Damien is aiming to return.