When she gave birth for the first time, Catherine, then in her early twenties,
didn't feel she was up to the responsibility of motherhood and so she placed
her baby daughter Alba in the care of her mother Elisabeth. Ten years
on, Catherine is now a well-adjusted thirty-year-old and has made up her
mind to take her daughter back and make a go at being a proper mother to
her. Unable to comprehend her mother's motives and perhaps resentful
of her past treatment of her, Alba is reluctant to accept Catherine as her
mother and even treats her with open hostility. Elisabeth is likewise
dubious about her daughter's sudden change of heart but agrees to allow her
to spend a few hours with her. Catherine is ill-prepared for the icy
cold reception she receives from her mother and daughter and, on the spur
of the moment, she abducts Alba and takes her to a holiday chalet beside
Haute-Sûre in Luxembourg. It is in this remote beauty spot that
Catherine must do everything she can to re-establish maternal contact with
the daughter if she is to avoid losing her forever...
The cinema of Japan is noteworthy for its purity, subtlety and visual impact. The films of Ozu, Mizoguchi and Kurosawa are sublime masterpieces of film poetry.
Since the 1920s, Hollywood has dominated the film industry, but that doesn't mean American cinema is all bad - America has produced so many great films that you could never watch them all in one lifetime.
In his letters to his friends and family, Franz Kafka gives us a rich self-portrait that is surprisingly upbeat, nor the angst-ridden soul we might expect.