Director: Nicolas Philibert, tbc, 113min

On selected release

Philibert’s previous documentary, Être et Avoir, was something of a phenomenon. A gentle portrait of a school in rural France, it touched the hearts of audiences around the world. His latest film is a far more personal undertaking and, as such, is less likely to enjoy similar box-office success. That said, the two films share a similarly organic and unhurried approach – Philibert is an old-school documentary film-maker who is not afraid to give his subjects, and his audience, space to breathe.

For Back to Normandy Philibert returns to the beginning of his career. Aged 24, he worked on a feature film for the director René Allio called I Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister and My Brother..., which was filmed in Normandy and based on a real-life crime. Allio cast nonprofessional locals in the film, and it is these people whom Philibert now seeks out 30 years later. Shared memories and intimacies are cut together with brutally matter-of-fact footage of rural life. It’s a low key, but rather affecting film.

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