Their Children After Them, adapted from Nicolas Mathieu’s novel, winner of the 2018 Prix Goncourt, premieres on HBO Max on May 6, 2026. Directed by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, the film teams up Paul Kircher, Angelina Woreth, Sayyid El Alami, Gilles Lellouche and Ludivine Sagnier in a coming-of-age story set in eastern France at the dawn of the 1990s.
Their Children After Them
Film | 2024
Arrives on HBO Max on May 6, 2026
Drama | Runtime: 2h 21m
Directed by Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma | Screenplay by Ludovic Boukherma, Zoran Boukherma, adapted from Nicolas Mathieu's novel
Starring Paul Kircher, Angelina Woreth, Sayyid El Alami, Gilles Lellouche, Ludivine Sagnier
Country: France
Presented in the official selection at the Venice Film Festival, where Paul Kircher won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Newcomer, Their Children After Them brings Nicolas Mathieu’s novel, published by Actes Sud, to the cinema. The film was released in French theaters on December 4, 2024, before its Canal+ debut in 2025.
Trailer for Their Children After Them
August 1992 in Heillange (the fictional stand‑in for Hayange in Moselle), a valley tucked away in the East, distant rusting blast furnaces that no longer burn, a mining town. Anthony (Paul Kircher), fourteen, is bored out of his mind. On a scorching afternoon by the lake, he meets Stéphanie (Angelina Woreth). Love at first sight hits so hard that, that very evening, he secretly borrows his dad’s motorcycle (Gilles Lellouche) to head to a party where he hopes to see her again. When the next morning he discovers the bike is missing, his life flips upside down.
From 1992 to 1998, the film unfolds in two-year slices, just like the novel, tracing Anthony’s life; and as with Nicolas Mathieu’s chapters, it threads in musiques d’époque (Modern Talking, Boney M, Metallica, NTM, our very own Johnny). In the end, the Boukherma brothers deliver a adaptation réussie mais prudente, lacking any real soaring moments or flashy directorial spark.
The film probes universal themes of adolescence, those first loves that span years, and the quest for identity — or how to break free from one's upbringing — and it, for that, isn’t shy about echoing another current release in theaters, L’Amour Ouf by Gilles Lellouche. The French actor-director had, himself, hoped to bring the Goncourt-winning novel to the screen before choosing to focus on adapting Neville Thompson’s book. And just like Lellouche’s film, Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma’s feature struggles to truly hit home.
The filmmaking duo still manage to turn their film into a retro treat that can be enjoyed for two hours thanks to a meticulous reconstruction, its languor capturing the long vacation time and the boredom of regional youth. But his cast of actors struggles to endear themselves to us, with the exception of Lellouche and his granular, embossed character of Anthony's father, a notorious alcoholic but not a bad guy, and Paul Kircher, definitely one of the actors of his generation to keep an eye on.
It's also a pity that the two directors didn't find the time to give greater prominence, in the course of the film's 2 hours 15 minutes, to the economic context of this French region sacrificed on the altar of globalization - a central theme in Nicolas Mathieu's work.
To go further, also check out our pick of HBO Max’s May 2026 new releases, our guide to streaming releases across all platforms, and today’s selection: What to watch today on streaming.
