35 Shots of Rum

This film by renowned director Claire Denis is a beautifully observed and emotionally vibrant father and daughter relationship drama which captures the warmth and easy going love between family and close friends, drawing perfectly nuanced and sensitive, truthful performances from all of her cast.

35 SHOTS OF RUM premiered to great critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, easily equalling Claire Denis’ superb earlier films Beau Travail and Vendredi Soir in its poetic and impressionistic portrait of a particular place and close-knit community, It is masterfully shot by Denis’ regular cinematographer Agnès Godard and with an emotionally evocative score by fellow long term artistic collaborators, The Tindersticks.

Lionel is a train driver. A widower, he has brought up his only daughter Joséphine since she was very small. Today, she’s a young woman. They live side by side, living in each other’s pockets, in a protective cocoon from the outside world. For Lionel, everything in his life revolves around his daughter and for Joséphine, her world is her father. Little by little, Lionel realises that time has passed and perhaps the time has come for them both to move on and find their independence.