With Playground, Laura Wandel evoked intensity and physical presence in the corridors of a school; this time she brings that same sensibility to the sterile walls of a hospital. Adam’s Sake explores the fragile balance between compassion and rules, law and conscience, distance and closeness, through the story of a nurse caught between a small child marked by hunger and neglect and the mother who refuses to let go. The bond Lucy develops with Adam and his mother Rebecca gradually evolves into a solidarity that surpasses the limits of the system; in every scene, the weight of responsibility clashes with the coldness of the law.Premiering in the Critics’ Week selection at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Wandel transforms hospital rooms into more than mere settings — they become spaces where invisible decisions and conflicts take tangible form. The camera sometimes holds steady in Lucy’s gaze, at other times disappears into Adam’s fragile silences. Adam’s Sake is not only a mother–child drama but also a film that questions how institutions touch — and fail to touch — human lives, inviting the viewer not to judge but to understand.