Babette is a scatter-brained Danish dancer stumbling her way through life in Paris, and her awkward interactions with friends and colleagues. When her instructor and friend asks her to accommodate a visiting Congolese musician, she’s initially hesitant to take on one more potential disruption. Despite some light-hearted cultural faux pas, the two eventually find their lives intertwined when taking care of an escaped lab mouse.

The film is largely kept within the boundaries of a cautiously accessible cross-cultural romcom. The humour is easily digestible and finds itself in familiar territory for this type of crowd-pleasing French cinema, with jokes based on mispronunciations, silly scenarios and incredibly localised Parisian banter.

The film is at its best when trapped within the blank walls of Babette and Edo’s barebones apartment. It might not be the most interesting atmosphere, it certainly allows for more subtle dialogue to shine and for Schiøler and Mbengue to just bounce off each other with delicate exchanges of smiles. Mbengue is an obvious stand-out, and he embodies Edo with a humanist empathy that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Mike Leigh or Ken Loach film. The moments of intimacy are blocked and shot with an impressive elegance, creating a fun artistic parallel between sex scenes and scenes where Edo and Babette collaborate with their respective percussion and dance.

One of the most promising decisions of Maoussi is how Schiøler insists on the dynamic between Edo and Babette above everything else. The commentary on France as a home to a wide range of immigrant perspectives is clear, and the metaphor of the lab rat as a unifying force for Edo and Babette is similarly sweet. Even if didactic, Schiøler is well-intentioned and doesn’t go too heavy-handed. Primarily, because she doesn’t need to when she and Moustapha Mbengue have such a natural chemistry.

The cinematography is often limited by the low-budget nature of the production. The camera is quite stagnant in most scenarios, and when Schiøler does adjust the rhythm to something more energetic, the camerawork feels misplaced and clumsy. Unfortunately, for a film fixating on the immigrant experience in France, the film doesn’t capitalise on its location or focus much on world-building of the social circles that Babette and Edo respectively belong to. Maoussi‘s humble 75-minute runtime can be to its own detriment, as the film is too swiftly paced for a domestic comedy. Schiøler clearly wants to move past the tropes of this type of mainstream rom-com confidently, but ultimately makes these narrative steps feel unnecessary to our two protagonists’ dynamic and mostly tedious.

Ultimately, Maoussi is a cute and quaint film adequately adapted to celebrate the intricate cultural mosaic of contemporary Paris. It’s all mirroring past successes, but when the two actors have such a natural gravitation towards each other, it’s undeniably charming. Schiøler’s direction might be occasionally aimless, but it’s also tender towards her protagonist and softly feminist in her gentle manipulations of the timeless romcom tropes.

Maoussi streams for free during the entire month of December as part of ArteKino – just click here now for more information.