Based on Sylvie Testud’s autobiographical novel, this elegiac film tells the story of three sisters and their overwhelming longing for their absent father. Growing up in 1970s Lyon with their Italian mother, the siblings overhear discussions about and find pictures of this mysterious parent, but are kept away from him. Rumors of inappropriate behavior and excessive drinking dog his reputation, but the Mercier girls—especially pale, freckled middle-child Sibylle, who is constantly referred to as her dad’s spitting image—still obsess and muse about his interests and appearance. Telescoping the action between two pivotal time periods—a summer in early adolescence and 30 years later when the girls are young adults (with Testud playing her alter ego Sibylle)—writer/director Éléonore Faucher (Sequins, SFIFF 2005) depicts a warm yet unsentimental portrait of a closely knit clan who nevertheless remain mysterious to each other and sometimes to themselves.


Written by Éléonore Faucher. Photographed by Pierre Cottereau. With Amira Casar, Sylvie Testud, Jean-Pierre Martins, Marc Barbe´, Lubna Azabal (107 min, TF1 International).