Holidays by the Sea

The weekend is coming and the various inhabitants of France, from punkers to retirees, are heading to a place of relaxation: an old married couple spend it in a trailer, neighbors with their teenage daughters occupy a small house, and a stern father instructs his family how to put up their tent…. The characters of this original comedy are many; each has his own story and they alternate and intertwine even though the protagonists only meet occasionally. But they all have one thing in common: we don’t hear their voices because they don’t communicate with words, but through expressions and gestures. Pascal Rabaté has shot a film without dialogue based on a comic book which he himself wrote. In transferring the work to the screen he found performers that share his characteristic sense of humor, among them Maria de Medeiros and Dominique Pinon, known from Jeunet’s films Delicatessen and Amélie. The colorful incidents of these ordinary characters correspond in many ways to the mentality of the people of France – and perhaps even elsewhere. –KVIFF