Paul Morel

A sunny winter morning... Two brothers on a countryside path, go intown, as usual... That day, the younger brother has a meeting with his criminal friends. Stéphane, his older brother, isn’t aware of it. Fate will reunite them one last time... but too late. Stéphane, bearer of a terrible secret, is in for a life of suffering...

Annecy is no tourist destination for three working-class Algerian brothers and their father, in the months after their mother has died. Marc is deeply troubled: he tries to stiff drug dealers and then plots revenge. Christophe is released from jail, lands a job, and must overcome various temptations in order to keep it. Olivier, nearing 18, may be falling in love with Hicham...

Edith, a 45-year-old textile factory worker, sees her life turned upside down by the company’s downsizing measures. Estranged from her son and without any other ties, rather than go into unemployment, she decides to leave her life behind and follow her work at the factory which has been relocated in Morocco.

Samy, a young Franco-Algerian, hits a policeman at a roadblock and must flee France. He takes refuge with his grandfather in Algeria. But he does not speak the local language, and everything is strange to him, even members of his family: Nadia his cousin, a pregnant widow; and Qu'Issam another cousin, who was expelled from France, and hates everything French. Samy's grandfather lives in the memory of a piece of land that no longer produces any wealth. Samy will never give the reason for his presence, but the chaotic climate of the country will revive the chaos that is in him.