L’Enfant

Today in French class, we were listening to a scene from a French movie titled L’Enfant, and since we didn’t know what was going on and lacked the listening comprehension skills to deduce the context, our French teacher explained that the young father “a vendu le bébé (had sold the baby)”. Naturally, we responded with a horrified silence (how could you sell a baby???), and our teacher went on and offhandedly remarked that “il est commun en France (it is common in France)”. What is wrong with the French? Why are their movies so weird???