ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

France

Thursday at AFIFest 2020

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As AFIFest 2020 Presented by Audi comes to an end, I want to thank the festival for allowing me to cover it again this year. This is always one of the highlights of my cinematic year. It is always an enormous task to put on a festival, especially one like AFIFest. This year has presented festivals with many challenges. AFI has come through with a tremendous event.

The Argentinian film Piedra Sola, from director Alejandro Telémaco Tarraf, is an ethnographic fiction film. In the highlands of Argentina we meet a llama herder as he and his son make a long journey to sell meat and hides. At home his herd is being killed off by a puma he cannot find. Other herders convene to discuss the need to be in harmony with Pachamama (Mother Earth) by sacrificing some llamas to the puma. As he journeys to satisfy the puma and the natural order he also must confront his own mortality. Much of the film is made up of long, meditative scenes. This is the kind of film that takes viewers into a very unfamiliar world. The lives of the people we meet are very different than our own. We often may not understand what they are doing, but we do find a common sense of the human condition.

Rival, from German director Marcus Lenz, is the story of Roman, a Ukrainian boy who is smuggled into Germany to be reunited with his mother Oksuna, who has been serving as a caregiver for the last three years. Now that the woman she has been caring for has died, she has stayed on with the woman’s husband Gert. Oksuna and Gert are in a relationship, and young Roman is not happy about it. He is always sullen when Gert is around. Roman clearly has some Oedipal feelings towards his mother. Roman continues to act out in various ways. But when his mother takes ill and is hospitalized, Gert takes him to a country house to avoid authorities since Oksuna and Gert are not in the country legally. Awaiting Oksuna’s release, Gert and Roman begin to bond a bit, but then Gert too is stricken, leaving Roman on his own not really knowing where he is and not speaking German.

I also took in a few shorts to round out my week.

Blocks (11 minutes), by Bridget Moloney, is the story of a mother of two small children struggling to keep up with it all. And they she begins vomiting Legos. Eventually, those Legos will provide her with a bit of an escape.

In Heading South (13 minutes), by Yuan Yuan, an eight year old Mongolian girl is taken from her home on the grasslands into the city for her father’s birthday. She learns that his father has remarried. She is very much an outsider at the raucous celebration filled with loud voices and drinking. We sense that the only relationship between father and daughter is what is forced upon them.

Dustin (20 minutes), from Naïla Guiguet, follows a young transgendered woman through a night at a nightclub. As she interacts with her friends, we sense her unhappiness as the story moves from hysteria to melancholy. The kindness and love she longs for are hard to find.

Wednesday at AFIFest 2020

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My cat has enjoyed AFIFest 2020 Presented by Audi a great deal this year. She rarely has a chance to spend a whole afternoon on my lap when I actually have to go to movies. I doubt she realizes the qualities of movies she’s sleeping through. She’s missing out on some very good stuff.

The documentary Collective, by German-Romanian filmmaker Alexander Nanau, arrived at AFIFest with a load of festival awards. It takes place in the aftermath of a tragic 2015 nightclub fire that claimed 27 lives. The corruption that that fire exposed led to the fall of the government, and a new temporary government of technocrats. Yet, another 37 victims of the fire died over the next four months, mostly from infections. All the while the Minister of Health claimed the hospitals were among the best in Europe. When journalists discovered that the disinfectants being sold to hospitals were blatantly diluted, a new scandal erupted. This film takes us inside the controversy, the investigation, and the attempts at the new Minister of Health to create a better medical system.

The key quote I found in the film: “The way a state functions can crush people some of the time.” This is one of many films I’ve seen this year that portray the need of an independent and trustworthy press for democracy to function. Collective not only speaks to that need, but is clear that the power of government can be overwhelming. This film is Romania official submission for Best International Feature Film Oscar consideration.

In Ekwa Msangi’s Farewell Amor, an Angolan immigrant in New York is reunited with his family after seventeen years apart. Walter came to America following the Angolan Civil War, his wife Esther and daughter Sylvia went to Tanzania. It has taken all this time for Walter to get permission for them to join him. Meanwhile, their lives have gone in different directions. Esther has become quite religious. Walter has made a life for himself—with another woman. Sylvia, in high school, has her own dreams. There are chapters in the film that give us the perspective of each of these characters. It is interesting how dancing keeps coming into play within the film. The characters find identity, both separately and as family, in dancing. At times that dancing may be a source of conflict, but it can also be the beginning of healing.

You may wonder if there are ever any comedies at festivals. Yes, in fact I took one in yesterday with My Donkey, My Lover & I by Caroline Vignal. Antoinette, French fifth grade teacher, is having an affair with Vladimir, the father of one of her students. When he cancels a romantic getaway to take a hiking trip with his wife and daughter, Antoinette decides she will do the same hiking adventure and surprise him. Totally unfamiliar with hiking, she hires a donkey for the journey. Naturally, it becomes a comedy of errors as Antoinette must deal not only with Patrick the donkey, but with her total lack of hiking ability. When she does manage to run into Vladimir and his family, the awkwardness and revelations become a bit more than she expected. The trip turns out to be a way for Antoinette to come to better understand herself and opens up new possibilities for her.

Cuties – Growing Up Fast

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Yes, Maïmouna Doucouré’s Cuties (Mignonnes) has created a great deal of controversy. I wouldn’t categorize that controversy as a tempest in a teapot, because the film does revolve around the sexualization of young women, but in a reflective and critical manner, not in an exploitive or abusive manner. In fact, the film suggests an outrage about this just as strong as the Twitterverse’s demands of boycott. The film, however, addresses the issue by asking us to empathize with the young characters, rather than turning away and ignoring what is happening.

Amy (Fathia Youssouf) is a Somalian immigrant living with her mother and two brothers in a poor section of Paris. They are observant Muslims, going to the women’s service at the mosque, hearing how evil it is for women to bare their bodies. Her father has returned to Somalia with plans to bring home a second wife. The planning for the wedding falls to Amy’s mother and the family matriarch. Amy is expected to participate, even though she feels abandoned and rejected.

 New in her middle school, she is attracted to a group of girls (Médina El Aidi-Azouni, Esther Gohourou, Ilanah Cami-Goursolas, and Myriam Hamma) who want to win a hip-hop dance contest. Amy begins to work her way into the group, and eventually begins dancing with them. Yes, the dances are mildly suggestive, but as Amy and the others begin to see other more risqué dancing videos online, Amy instigates making their dances even more so. When they begin posting their videos on social media, the affirmations are intoxicating. Here, Amy finds the kind of attention she misses at home.

Cuties is a painful coming-of-age story. At home, Amy has learned that in her world women are disposable. Even though she and her mother will still be in the home with her father and new wife, it is obvious that they are not enough. They are being relegated to second-class status. The worlds of the mosque, home, and society are acutely at odds.

A large part of that conflict involves the meaning of being a woman. At home Amy gets two lessons on womanhood. The first is when she has her first period, she is told she’s now a woman. The other lesson is when the matriarch tells her that the way to become a woman is to prepare the food for her father’s upcoming wedding. But society has many ways of teaching that women are sexualized, and the way to get approval and love is through that route. It is a lesson that young girls see often.

There are parts of this film that are hard to watch. The increasingly sexualized dancing is the film’s way of rubbing our noses in a culture that may not officially promote that behavior in children, but certainly is willing to tolerate it, possible even think it’s cute that they want to be so grown up. When Amy gets approval and affirmation along the way, she wants more. Eventually she will push too far.

It is also hard to watch the way Amy must deal with a life at home that will never be fulfilling. The place of women in her ethnic world is belittling. We don’t want that world for her any more than we do the sexualized world she is entering.

The film is about a world in which children (especially girls) are encouraged in many ways to grow up to fast. What “to grow up” means varies within cultures and societies. But adolescence is always a challenge for these children who face challenges of identity and belonging. Can we really expect eleven year olds to make the proper choices when faced with so many voices and images? The film serves as a strong reminder that left to their own choices, calamity is near at hand.

Finally, I want to address the widespread denunciation of the film by those who haven’t seen it. It’s my understanding that what created the controversy was an ill-advised publicity poster used by Netflix (which Netflix later apologized for and admitted was inappropriate). Certainly that poster gave an impression of the film that would suggest it would be offensive. But often posters (or even trailers) do not capture the reality of a film. The way the condemnation of the film went viral suggests that we live in a world in which people don’t want to make their own decision, but will just pass on what people who yell the loudest have to say. Cuties is actually a very clear indictment of a society that sexualizes children. That is the voice that needs to be heard.

Photo courtesy of Netflix.

Myth of a Colorblind France – Black Expats

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Paris has been a haven for American expatriot artists of all sorts, but especially for African-Americans. In Myth of a Colorblind France, from Alan Govenar, we get to see that history in the 20th century and how it continues today. However, just because African-Americans found freedom there, doesn’t mean that there is no racism in France.

Most of the film is a celebration of African-American artists, writers, and musicians who migrated to Paris starting early in the 20th century. With the advent of World War I, when black soldiers were readily accepted by the French (who didn’t know about American segregation), many African-Americans felt free for the first time. In the post-war era, African-Americans began to return to France to enjoy the ability express their arts freely. This continued in the post-World War II era as well. Among those we learn about are dancer Josephine Baker, jazz clarinetist Sidney Bechet, painter Henry Ossawa Tanner, writers Countee Cullen, Chester Himes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin. The film also allows us to hear some of the stories of current African-American expats who continue to find their home in Paris.

There are two key elements that made African-Americans feel welcome in France. The first was the absence of the racism that was so engrained in American society. When American blacks came to France, the segregation and discrimination they knew at home was not part of French culture. The second element is that in France these people were seen as artists rather than entertainers. That is a key difference. There was no sense of minstrel show when at a jazz club or seeing Josephine Baker. These were people who were making art—something that was valued in the French culture.

Note that I’m talking here about the African-American experience in France. It is noted in a few parts of the film that this is not the same experience that Africans and French people of African descent deal with. One of the current African-American expats recalls being in a neighborhood where many Africans live, and being harshly stopped by police and asked for papers. He says when they heard his American accent and saw he had US identification, they acted very politely. He doesn’t believe that would have been the case otherwise.

Early on it is pointed out that “racism in France is much more complicated” It is tied to the period of colonialism when France controlled many places in North and West Africa, and the Caribbean. People from these former colonies have often migrated to France as well. Even those born in France with such heritage, often times are treated much differently that the African-Americans.

The film really spends very little time on this issue, even though it seems to be implied by the film’s title. While the film is instructive for us to see the great talent among African-Americans that was nurtured in France, it fails to give more than some passing examples of how racism works in France. There is no systematic look at how racism and anti-immigrant (especially anti-Moslem) sentiment has taken root in France. That might serve as a starting point for discussion in French culture about the realities of racism. It might also serve as an opening for Americans to better understand some of the subtle ways racism works here as well.

Myth of a Colorblind France is available through Virtual Cinema at local arthouses.

A Chef’s Journey – Cooking with Cooperation

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Food and restaurants have become popular reality TV subjects, with at least one channel dedicated to such shows. Rémi Anfosso’s A Chef’s Journey may seem like something you would find on the Food Network, but it really doesn’t follow the template of those reality shows.

The film follows Chef David Kinch of Manresa, a Los Gatos, California, restaurant with 3 Michelin stars, as he takes his staff on a trip to France for a series of “four hands” dinners at other esteemed restaurants. They will go to other 2 and 3 star restaurants in Provence, Paris, and Marseille. Most of his staff is young; many have never been abroad. The idea is that the events will serve as a kind of cross-pollination for the staffs of the restaurants involved.

If this were a Food Network show, we would be expecting near disasters (or total disasters), but that is not the way Anfosso presents this story. Kinch and his staff worry about getting the ingredients they will need (such as abalone and sauces that take several days to prepare, so they are taking them frozen) to the places they will be cooking. The staffs will be working together and may have little ability to even speak a common language. Chefs in general have a reputation for being a bit imperial and not wanting to share. But as we watch the trip unfold, everything seems to work out well. The biggest problem is that the various members of staffs are all trying not to offend their counterparts and not really getting to know each other or what they do.

Also different from the way the Food Network would approach this is that the food itself stays in the background. We see some of the dishes being prepared (and this is all small plates of very beautiful and artistic food), but the only eating we see happening is when the staff gets to taste the foods the others have made. We hear some of the foods described, but some we never know just what we are seeing.

Each of the stops on this journey provide a different setting, country, city, and Mediterranean coast, that affect the way the chefs in those places approach cuisine. In Provence, the emphasis in on the freshness of the herbs and vegetables. In Paris, the restaurant sees itself as the height of French cooking. In Marseille, it is all built around what the sea can deliver that day. It is the chef in Marseille, Gérald Passedat, who provides the clearest view of his philosophy of cuisine.

While it is refreshing that the film doesn’t generate conflict the way a Food Network show would for dramatic purposes, it would have been good to see what problems they did encounter and how that was resolved. It also would have given us a chance to see some of the cross-pollination that I’m sure must have happened.

The film is meant to be a celebration of cross-cultural cooperation. It serves that function, but not as deeply as it might.

A Chef’s Journey is available on Virtual Cinema through local arthouses and on Vimeo.

Photos courtesy of First Run Features.

Dilili in Paris – Vive le Belle Époque

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Dilili in Paris is a celebration of fin de siècle Paris. While it is an animated story of a young dark-skinned girl’s adventure, the core of the film is to meet some of the amazing men and women (especially women) of the Belle Époque.

The center of the film is Dilili, a young girl from the South Seas, who is part of a cultural display, but has been well educated by Louise Michel (probably the first of many names you’ll want to look up). Dilili catches the eye of Orel, a young delivery boy, who offers to show her Paris on his tricycle. He doesn’t know that she has been taken in by a Countess. But soon the two are busy going all around (and under) the city.

But all is not well in Paris. Little girls are being kidnapped. Dilili wants to solve this mystery. Along the way she meets a wide range of people of the arts and sciences: Pasteur, Marie Curie, Picasso, Debussy, Monet, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec, Proust, Colette, Rodin, Eiffel, the future Edward VIII, and many others. Those are just some of the names I knew. Many others required some time in Wikipedia.

We discover that a male-dominant sect, the Male Masters, is behind the kidnapping. They want to force women into complete submission. With the help of Orel, opera singer Emma Calvé, and various others, Dilili liberates the kidnapped girls and the Male Masters are defeated.

But the plot is really just the vehicle for a journey to Belle Époque Paris. The film is a bit Franco-centric in the choice of characters we meet. Early in the film Dilili started writing down the names of the people she met. I started doing the same, just to try to keep up. (I suggest you do the same.) And many of them (such as Gide, Chocolat, Anna de Noailles) were unknown to me. Even people who don’t appear as characters are often alluded to in posters or conversation. These include Jules Verne and the Lumière brothers (what movie about that time could not include them?). The film may take some liberties with time, but it really isn’t about a specific year, but a golden age.

Dilili in Paris is also a celebration of the place of women in the world. At the turn of the twentieth century, women were relegated to the background. They did not have power or votes. When we meet Colette she tells Dilili she has written books, but had to publish them under her husband’s name. The villains of the story, the Male Masters, represent not so much real people as society’s understanding of the inferiority of women. So writer/director Michel Ocelot makes a point of showing the many women who were doing important things. They may or may not have been recognized for their greatness, but as we look back, we know that there have always been women who have made such contributions to the arts and sciences. From over a century away, we may note that the contributions of women are still often buried in history. (Cf., Hidden Figures)

The film is in select theaters and available on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films

Transit – Just Passing Through (Or Not)

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There is an old gospel song, “This world is not my home, I’m just a-passing through”. A bit of that sense of temporariness is what we find in Transit from German director Christian Penzold. There are various aspects of this film that may leave us a bit off-balance, but that just adds to the depth of this film.

The film is based on a novel by the same name that was based in 1940 France as Nazis were in the process of occupying the country. But it is filmed with current day clothing, weapons, and vehicles, but not modern technology such as computers. The story certainly reflects the novel’s time frame, but the film also pulls the story into our world.

Georg (Franz Rogowski) has recently escaped from a prison camp, and is told of a chance to escape Paris for Marseilles, which has not yet been occupied, and so is a place where many have fled to seek passage to other countries. When delivering letters to a writer, he discovers the writer is dead. But the writer has letters that promise him a visa for Mexico, if he can get to Marseilles to get them. Soon he is in the city, doing what must be done to leave France. Also in the city is Marie (Paula Beer), the writer’s estranged wife, searching for her husband. The two are attracted to each other, but Georg cannot bring himself to tell Marie the truth. Will they sail off into the sunset together? Will the truth come out? Will anyone be saved?

There are various side stories that add to the plot and its complexity, including the young son of the man who died while en route to Marseilles with Georg, and a doctor with whom Marie is having an affair. There are also many stories of people in Marseilles struggling to find a way to leave. Meanwhile, the fascists keep “cleansing” towns and will soon be here.

The modern setting of a story that seems obviously to fit with the Nazi era reminds us that refugees and immigrants continue to deal with this sense of “just a-passing through” with hopes but no assurances of having a place to go to. As we hear the various stories of the different people who are in Marseilles, they reflect life as it is still being lived by people who seek safety and a new life in another land.

But because of the way the film draws this story into our own world, it becomes a dark, existential reflection of life as something in transit. Marseilles becomes a limbo or purgatory that we find ourselves in just as the characters have. It sees life as a kind of searching for a future that we do not know—one that could be our salvation or our ruin. In the meanwhile we are thrown together with other would-be pilgrims, stuck in a world that is simultaneously threatening and hopeful. And there is no guarantee that any of us will find our way out. This is made evident in the song over the closing credits, which is not “This World is Not My Home”, but “Road to Nowhere” by Talking Heads.

Photos courtesy of Music Box Films

The Last Suit – Road Trip to Grace

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We often try to bury the past—to forget the pain and suffering. That can be a good thing if we move on with life and find fulfillment. But often that buried past comes to haunt us. It may actually prevent the good life we hope for in the future until it is recognized and addressed.

Abraham Bursztein (Miguel Ángel Solá) is an 88 year old Holocaust survivor who has made a life for himself in Buenos Aires. But his health is failing. His children have sold his home and he is scheduled to move into a retirement home. But he has a secret plan to make one last trip—to return to Poland to take a suit to the Christian friend who saved his life after the War. But this is a trip that is not just about the gratitude he owes that friend; it is also about the resentments he has carried all these years.

The film is a road movie of his trip to find what has been missing from his life. In part the trip is an attempt to be in control of his life. His children have made all the decisions for him. But the trip is also driven by a long-forgotten promise. His life cannot be complete while that promise has not been fulfilled. He sees this as a one-way trip, as though he is doing this as one final task before he is ready for the end.

Abraham is a severe, judgmental, and bitter man who holds grudges forever. His family knows that he considers “Poland” a dirty word. As he makes this trip he refuses to say the word himself. He’ll only show a piece of paper with the word on it. We know that Poland is where terrible things happened to him. He continues to hold on to the anger against Poland, and even more Germany.

This road trip turns into a series of encounters that put his anger in perspective. He keeps meeting people who, in spite of his cheerlessness and even rudeness, seek to help him. Each of these people bring a touch of grace into his life. He begins to connect with them in ways that start to knock down the walls of his anger. When he comes to his final destination, we learn that what he is really trying to return to is the place where he first met grace in the actions of another. This time grace was a chance to return to life after being in the realm of death that was the Holocaust. When those walls are finally destroyed, Abraham is then free to love as he has not done for many years.

Watching the film, I constantly wondered why these people would respond to Abraham with kindness when he was always so mean-spirited. But then that is what makes it grace. Grace reaches out to those who do not deserve it. It is freely offered just because it is needed. The film does not talk about God, but it does show the way God—and God’s people—touch lives and bring new life.

Photos courtesy of Outsider Pictures

 

Papillon – We Know It’s Not Rehabilitation

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In 1931 Paris, Henri Charrière (nicknamed ‘Papillon’, or ‘Pappy’ because of the butterfly tattoo on his chest), makes his living as a criminal, stealing jewelry and the like. During an evening of debauchery, Pappy (Charlie Hunnum) witnesses some of the criminals he works under beating a man.  The next morning, police arrive at his door, but not for what you may think.  He’s being charged with the murder of the man he saw being beaten the night prior.

Quickly, we see Pappy sentenced to life in prison for murder. Framed. He tells his girlfriend, who wanted to settled down with him, to forget about him all together.

This begins one man’s autobiographical nightmare.  Charrière published his autobiography entitled Papillon in 1969.  In 1973, the year of his death, a movie was created based on his autobiography.  Nearly forty-five years later, we’re given this raw and dark remake.

Papillon and his fellow inmates became property of a penal colony in French Gyana.  They were told that France had disowned them.  It was for the greater good.  For French expansion.

The living conditions they forced these men to endure were inhumane and disgusting.  They slept on concrete slabs with their feet shackled.  They relieved themselves in buckets.  They were bitten by bats during the night.

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It took no time for Pappy to meet his sidekick, of sorts, Louis Dega (Rami Malek), a rich counterfeit who was in the middle of an appeal and didn’t think he’d be there for very long.

Dega’s case attracted attention from the media, and it was obvious that numerous inmates would be out to get him.  It was assumed that he kept money in his gut (which was correct) and everyone wanted to steal from him.

Pappy saw Dega’s situation as an opportunity.  Immediately plotting an escape from the penal colony, he offered to physically protect Dega in exchange for money to use in his escape plan.  Dega declined, until a man was murdered directly beside him.  He quickly reconsidered Pappy’s offer for safety.

Due to Dega’s infamy, he and Pappy were forced to endure one of the toughest work assignments available, essentially moving large boulders in the sweltering heat all day. Although this provided Pappy an opportunity to make a deal with a local sailor for an escape attempt.

Over the next few days, Dega is subjected to numerous threats and attacks that Pappy protects him from. Dega realizes that he’ll be dead before his appeal and has no choice but to escape with Pappy to save his life.

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The men are forced to witness an execution via guillotine of a fellow inmate, and are told, “Keeping you is no benefit. Destroying you is no loss.” Pappy and Dega are forced to remove the body but Dega shuts down and the guards whip him. Pappy intervenes, and attempts to escape alone, only to be recaptured.

As punishment for the attempt, Papillon is placed in solitary confinement and told, “We know it’s not rehabilitation.  We do our best to break you.”  If you hadn’t grasped the nature of the type of facility they were in by this point in the film, this quote would give a pretty accurate depiction.  The guards had absolutely no respect for the prisoners as human beings, and took pleasure in torturing them.  They tortured them and worked them literally to death. Sure, these men were criminals. Some of them the lowest of the low.  But where should the line be drawn in terms of punishment?  Where do human rights come into play?

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Many men were carried out of solitary confinement, dead from the conditions. Not many could survive the torture. Throughout this film, Papillon is a constant reminder of how you can will yourself to continue to endure despite the conditions that are force upon you. It’s incredible what we can do with the right mindset.

Pappy and Dega continue their venture to escape the penal colony. It’s clear that Pappy and Dega’s relationship goes beyond a business deal. They are now comrades who are loyal to each other until the end. Their shared experiences bring them closer than ever. They seem to be the only source of trust and reliability for one another.

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Fast forward to 1969 where Papillon is on a plane as an old man.  His home is Venezuala now and he has a wife, who convinced him to write about his experience.  He was returning to France as he felt it was important for his memoir to be published there.

In 1970, it was decreed that Henri Charrière could return to France.

As a whole, although slightly long and drawn out, this was a fascinating story.  It was a disturbing look at the underbelly of certain correctional systems over the years and in different parts of the world.  I can completely appreciate the need to expose all detail.  This film raises a question that is still relevant in today’s society, that is, is prison an appropriate form of rehabilitation for wrongdoers?  In many facilities, people who are imprisoned get released worse off then when they went in.  They are often not provided with appropriate education or rehabilitation to truly assist them in change and reintegration into the general population. Out of fear for their lives, some engage in further criminal activity simply to survive threats from fellow inmates. Although we have come a long way from facilities like we see in this film, I think we still have a long way to go in fully and effectively assisting our fellow people who have committed wrong-doings.

Back to Burgundy – Finding Family Again

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“When I was little, every morning I’d look out the window, and I’d think, ‘Every morning it changes.’

“Yeah, when I was a kid I thought every day was different, and it would always be like that. It would always keep changing. But then I realized that, here, nothing ever changes.”

The dynamic of change and lack of change is explored in the family drama Back to Burgundy (French title: Ce Qui Nous Lie, ‘What Binds Us”). It is the story of the reunion of three siblings on their family’s vineyard. There is much that is the same as it has always been, but also much that changes day by day.

Oldest son Jean (Pio Marmaï), whose thoughts open this review, left home years ago to see the world. When he learns his father is dying, he returns home when his sister Juliette (Ana Girardot) now runs their vineyards. Their brother Jérémie (Françoise Civil) has married into one of the premiere winemaking families in the area. Naturally, this is a time of both joy and turmoil. There is love between these people, but there are also resentments that have grown through the years of Jean’s absence.

After their father’s death the three must figure out what to do with the family’s estate, given the large tax bill they are facing. As they work together through the year-round vineyard activities, they must negotiate not only the business aspects, but more importantly their relationships must go through much of the same kinds of changes that the vineyards face.

The film makes great use of the Burgundy countryside and the various aspects of winemaking. We see the vineyards through various seasons. We watch as the siblings taste grapes and debate which day will be the best for harvest, and later what grapes to combine into the wine. But all this visual celebration of wine also serves as a metaphor of the relationship the siblings must reestablish. As the film says at one point, “Love is like wine. It needs time. It needs to ferment.”

As the three siblings (and later Jean’s wife and son) interact, they slowly come to find peace with both their pasts and the present. For that to happen, they must recognize the parts of themselves and their relationships that are immutable, and also to discover the newness that can come each day—just as Jean noticed as a child looking out his window.

Photos courtesy of Music Box Films