Winegrower Patrick Ponsac comes close to ruining his marriage when he has an affair with another woman. By way of atonement, he takes his wife back to the Mediterranean island where, 13 years earlier, they spent their honeymoon. Not such a good move, as it turns out. The peacemaking holiday coincides with the outbreak of a bloody civil war. Having failed to leave the country, Patrick, his wife and their eccentric entourage are taken hostage by merciless guerrillas…
Acting
Abril and Lemercier steal every scene they're in.
Direction
Jugnot juggles tone like a grenade with loose pin.
Writing
Bourgeois satire sharper than it has any right to be.
Director
Gérard Jugnot
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during peak 90s European anxiety about Yugoslavia; uses distant conflict as punchline.
Jugnot had just won César for 'Une époque formidable'; this was his ambitious tonal follow-up that critics mostly rejected.
FR
