In Love Me Tender, a mother’s fight for her child reveals how queerness is still policed

A new film adaptation is putting queer parenthood under the microscope. Love Me Tender, directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet and starring Vicky Krieps, follows a mother's custody battle after she leaves her husband upon realizing she's attracted to women — and he responds by cutting off her access to their son. The Conversation UK's review argues the film exposes real prejudice, including the mother being branded 'ill' and 'violent,' even as its own visual style leans on familiar, isolating tropes about queer characters. It's adapted from Constance Debré's 2020 autofictional novel of the same name.

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