Christian Milia-Darmezin

In a Mediterranean country plunging into armed conflict, a doctor tries to do his duty against all odds, until the day his destiny is turned upside down…

Early on in this engaging historical drama, a marquis (played by the singularly droll Jacques Nolot) offers a peddler a carriage ride on a remote country road. After sizing up his benefactor, the peddler fights motion sickness to deliver his sales pitch: “I have here a few objects of wonder, pious images, pamphlets against men of the cloth, newspapers from Amsterdam and London, holy cards, quills, writing paper…”

Cloche is an homeless and clumsy young woman. She exhausts her companions with her blunders. They end up excluding her from their camp. Unable to fend for herself, starving, freezing, and afraid, Cloche goes downtown. A little odyssey begins that will change her life.

Amel and her family learn that their landlord wants to get his apartment back in a few months. While Mouna, her eldest daughter, begins to have visions of Charles Martel, and their request for new social housing drags on, Amel has no choice but to reinvent herself.

Talk of living wages and religious observances upsets the delicate accord between the boss of a run-down truck yard and his workers in this visually arresting take on the French-Algerian immigrant experience.