Overseas

Stars: Nicole Garcia, Marianne Basler, Brigitte Rouan. Writer/star/director Brigitte Rouan won the "Critics Week Award" at Cannes with this complex period drama about three sisters living in Algiers during the French occupation. Covering events from 1946-1964, the film first tells the story of Zon (Garcia), the eldest sister, who married a naval officer and then lost him in battle. Then the story rewinds and offers Malene's (Rouan) tale. With a wimp for a husband, Malene is forced to run the family vineyard herself, and has to balance a miserable personal life with a threatened public life, as the Arabian workers become more and more outspoken about their unhappiness. In the final segment, Gritte (Basler), the baby sister, takes the theme one step further, as she embarks on a secret and dangerous liaison with a local Arab. Scenes which initially make little sense become clear when seen from the perspective of a later sister. Audience: Although Overseas is a well-made film, the combination of a complex narrative structure and a political-historical underpinning to the plot will make this of marginal interest to mainstream audiences, but serious foreign film buffs will definitely want to see.