INDEPENDENT FILM FOR INDEPENDENT MINDS

A Christmas Tale introduces us to Junon (Catherine Deneuve) and Abel (Jean-Paul Roussillon), the matriarch and patriarch of the none-too-harmonious Vullard clan, whose roots are in the provincial French town of Roubaix (near the Belgian border). This Christmas, the entire family is gathering under one roof for the first time in six years. The visitors include the eldest surviving child, Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), and her emotionally withdrawn son, Paul (Emile Berling); the black sheep of the family, Henri (Mathieu Amalric), and his bubbly lover, Faunia (Emmanuelle Devos); the youngest son, Ivan (Melvil Poupaud), his devoted wife, Sylvia (Chiara Mastroianni), and their two young children; and Simon (Laurent Capelluto), the son of Junon's dead brother. But there's more to the occasion than merely a tense Christmas dinner.