Lucy Harrison
The film centers around a young French widow and her two adolescent children attempt to carve out a meager life for themselves by farming rice fields alongside the ocean in French Indo-China in the 1930's. Their efforts are hampered each year by the presence of the sea, which invariably floods the fields with saltwater and wipes out the crops. In desperation, the mother realizes that their only hope lies in the construction of a sea wall to prevent continued flooding, but the mother must cut a swath through the local bureaucracy in an almost Sisyphean attempt to make this happen. Meanwhile, her obstinate daughter, Suzanne, draws the romantic obsessions of a well-to-do Chinese gentleman, Monsieur Jo; though he could easily provide a way out, the possibility of a romantic relationship between Jo and Suzanne could just as easily fall prey to local racial prejudices that would damage or ruin the lives of both.
Victor, a father, travels the roads with his teenage son, Felix. For Felix, the trip is a school of life, as his first romantic encounter helps him better understand his father and get closer to him.
At Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, a beautician on her way to a new job in Mexico accidentally meets a cook who is on his way back from America. Labor strikes, bad weather, and pure luck cause the two of them to share a room overnight at the airport Hilton hotel. Will their initial mutual indifference and downright hostility turn into a one night stand or perhaps something more?
