Innocence and experience
Claire is a struggling mother with a life of difficulty and betrayal and pain. On the contrary, her son is a bright-eyed boy with a hopeful future because of his strength and curiosity. Together, their family is a portrait of life in two modes: the first is the mode of innocence, life through Louis's eyes. His days are filled with wonder and new information, and he gets to learn from every moment. Claire is the other mode, the mode of experience. Her life is one of endurance, frustration, and patience, and she offers herself as a sacrifice for her son.
Misshapen families
The two families in this film are both damaged in someway. Claire and Louis are damaged by the hateful, selfish father who abandons them to suffer alone without a way to take care of themselves. Marcelle and Pelo are damaged by fate. They have no one to blame for their loss of child (they miscarried), so they struggle in their marriage, fighting the temptation to blame each other. The story offers these two portraits as portals of suffering, through which one hopes for redemption and restoration.
Suffering and refuge
Louis is overwhelmed by the painful truth he finds in Marcelle and Pelo's relationship, and he finds refuge at a church, on the rooftop. This is highly symbolic and constitutes a main theme in the film. He isn't in the church; he is above it, with nothing between him and the "heavens," so to speak. This represents a direct connection between his innocent mind and an unspeakable fate which could cause so much dysfunction in a family that could have been happy and healthy. He struggles to work through the confusion, but later learns that the couple have given birth, a sign of fate's restorative qualities.
