Festival favourites Martineau and Ducastel return to the LLGFF with an epic drama covering life and sexual politics in France. Friends and lovers caught up in the excitement of May '68 at the Sorbonne eventually leave Paris for a communal life in the country. The collective seems at first like a fairytale of left wing hippydom. But principles are betrayed as members of the commune drift away to bourgeois careers. Laetitia Casta gives a great performance as the central figure, Catherine, loved by both Hervé and Yves, eventually left by everyone, she remains a gentle but determined matriarch. At almost three hours this film doesn't feel like its navigation through 40 years is rushed. It offers a lesson in the hopes and dreams of the generation of 68 and how we live now.