35 Shots of Rum (2008) NYT Critics' Pick

[lsanderson]

From left, Grégoire Colin, Mati Diop, Alex Descas and Nicole Dogue in “35 Shots of Rum,” by the French director Claire Denis.
Struggling to Decipher International Relations and Individual Lives
By A. O. SCOTT
Published: September 16, 2009

Lionel and his daughter, Joséphine, live in a tidy and comfortable apartment in a high-rise housing project on the outskirts of Paris. Lionel (Alex Descas), a widower and a man of few words, works for the commuter rail system, while Joséphine (Mati Diop) studies social sciences at university. She and her classmates debate about colonialism, resistance and relations between the industrialized world and “the global South,” dropping names like Frantz Fanon and Joseph Stiglitz as they try to make sense of a world that is both distant and immediate. More