Thirty-year-old Sandrine (Mathilde Seigner from Betty Fisher And Other Stories) quits her job as a net-head in Paris, turns her back on the big city and buys a farm in a remote region of southern France. The physical challenges and the social isolation are tough, but, undeterred, she throws herself into her new outdoor work. Thing is, her task is made considerably more troublesome by former owner Adrien (Michel Serrault, veteran Gallicactor best known for Nelly&Monsieur Arnaud), a widower who regards the female newcomer with extreme suspicion...
An unexpected box-office success across the Channel, The Girl From Paris is a confidently shot debut feature from writer-director Christian Carion. Partly it's a sympathetic portrait of the difficulties of contemporary agricultural life, and partly it's an impressively acted character study. And though the wary friendship that develops between the two protagonists is inevitable to the point of being a touch predictable, their overcoming of divisions caused by age, gender and background is touching nonetheless.
