35 Shots of Rum

Time and romantic attraction threaten to sour a family relationship in this drama from writer and director Claire Denis. Lionel (Alex Descas) is a middle-aged widower who makes his living driving a train and shares an apartment with his twenty-something daughter Josephine (Mati Diop). Lionel and Josephine have a warm and caring relationship, and while it's not Lionel's nature to say very much, his affection for his daughter is clear. Lionel's on-and-off girlfriend Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue) and their footloose friend Noe (Gregoire Colin) live in the same building, and together the four have fallen into a casual family relationship. However, when's Lionel's close friend and fellow driver Rene (Julieth Mars Toussaint) announces he's retiring, Lionel becomes painfully aware that he's not as young as he once was, and realises how much he depends on his daughter. This knowledge sets Lionel on edge when Jospehine's friendship with Noe begins to evolve into a romantic relationship, while she is angered when she spies her father flirting with an attractive woman who runs a nearby diner.

Claire Denis crafts this subtle family drama about the close connection between a widower named Lionel (Alex Descas) and his daughter, Josephine (Mati Diop). Since the death of Josephine's mother when she was young, she and her father have depended only on one another, living together even as Josephine has reached adulthood. However, she and Lionel realise that the time for them to move on may have come. 35 SHOTS OF RUM (35 RHUM) also stars Nicole Dogue, Gregoire Colin, and Ingrid Caven.