Simon Wolberg, the proud Jewish mayor of a small provincial town in northern France, is a lovingly devoted but rigid paterfamilias who finds it difficult to accept the individualities of his family members. Played with memorable authenticity by a wonderfully vital and nuanced François Damiens, Wolberg leads a life characterized by structure, obsessive love and self-conscious devotion to his Jewish identity. He is at odds with his remote wife Marianne (Valérie Benguigui), his gregarious teenage daughter Delphine (Léopoldine Serre) and his oddball son Benjamin (Valentin Vigourt), who all lead very separate lives. As a comic narrative of forced intimacy unfolds, the film’s cinematography reflects the darkening portrait of an outwardly closely knit family fracturing along lines of irreconcilable differences. Debut director Axelle Ropert—screenwriter for the films of Serge Bozon (La France, SFIFF 2008), who plays Simon’s nemesis brother-in-law Alexandre—infuses a characteristically stylized, quasi-theatrical quality into the precise visual counterpoint, shrewdly heightened dialogue and intriguingly complex characters that comprise this winningly eccentric, deeply resonant family melodrama.

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Written by Axelle Ropert. Photographed by Céline Bozon. With François Damiens, Valérie Benguigui, Jean-Christophe Bouvet, Serge Bozon. (82 min,tt Pyramide International)