Sablé-sur-Sarthe, Sarthe

Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens arrived in Sable after the death of his father in 1946. He was 1. His mother falled sick, he was adopted by an old cousin who raised him until 1962. During his life there, happened events that determinated him for a lot of years, serious events upon which silence reigns and which became what we unproperly call a family secret. This is also where he came upon his jewish origins. It was for him about showing the space of these silences. He wanted to present these places, those times, the life of a child and then of a teenager in a small town from the still, fixed, cold countryside. Investigation on the future of a countryside community, its landscapes, its streets and inhabitants, pursuit of family archives and come back on personnal memories, this is the braid the movie chose to tie.