Back home

Thomas, a young man, returns from Montréal to the farm in the southeast of France where he grew up. He has been away for ten years. His mother is terminally ill and his father is staying with her in the hospital and seems unable to cope with day-to-day chores. Thomas' first impression of the farm is discouraging; livestock have been sold to cover debts, irrigation pipes are in disrepair, and rooms are cluttered and in need of tidying up. Thomas meets Mona, his brother's widow and their son Alex. Mona is trying to manage the farm, with the alternative of losing the land to debt never out of sight. She struggles to provide security and education for Alex, and makes ends barely meet with a job in a nearby town.

The movie is a tale of relationships where, as in real life, motivations are unclear or unseen, characters are known from partial information and feelings (love, gratefulness, the search for security, the need to alleviate one's solitude) mix in unpredictable ways. Thomas renews old acquaintances and friendships and from conversations we learn (perhaps unreliable) stories about the family during his absence. Things don't fall into place neatly; the reasons for Thomas' estrangement from his family are never clear, although there are tantalizing hints involving his father and late brother. The ending is open and all choices are difficult.

All in all, an excellent movie. It garnered a well deserved Venice Horizons Award for Best Screenplay (by the director Jessica Palud, Diastème and Phillipe Lioret) and was nominated for Best Film. Acting is excellent all around, direction is fluid and the cinematography captures the harsh, high contrast summer landscapes of the Drôme, a region near Valence.