Melancholy, atmospheric film set in Brittany in 1963, when a wounded veteran of the Algerian uprising (Grégori Derangère) takes a job in a lighthouse, and finds himself cold-shouldered by the clannish locals, except for his taciturn boss (Philippe Torreton) and boss’s lonely, love-hungry wife (Sandrine Bonnaire). For some reason he passes up the luscious Emilie Dequenne, as a less-attached local girl who digs him, for Bonnaire’s waifish charm. Even if it’s just a variation on Ryan’s Daughter, it’s an affecting work that neatly skips around threatened cliches.
