20th Annual European Union Film Festival
Screening Dates
  • November 25, 2017 8:30
France

“A raucous, ribald romp … Crowd-pleasingly big hearted.”

Neil Young, The Hollywood Reporter

A freewheeling, intergenerational theatre troupe tours Chekhov and emotional minefields in French rising-star director Léa Fehner’s sophomore film, winner of the Audience Award at Rotterdam. Partially based on the helmer’s own upbringing with on-the-road theatre folk (aka ​“ogres”), and featuring superb turns by Fehner’s real-life mother, father, and sister—as well as in-demand Adèle Haenel (The Unknown Girl, BPM [Beats Per Minute]) and Almodóvar staple Lola Dueñas—this moving ensemble piece is a personal and decidedly familial project for the young cinéaste. Unsurprisingly, its dramatic notes—pregnancy, infidelity, alcoholism—ring of experienced truth, steering the movie clear of soap-opera schlock. Co-written by Philippe Garrel thesp Brigitte Sy.