Will it snow for Christmas?

A moving and highly topical social drama set in the French countryside 'Will it snow for Christmas?' (Y aura-t-il de la neige à Noël?) will be screened at 3 pm on December 11 and 6.30 pm on December 12 Alliance Francaise, Barnes Place Colombo-7. Debut directorial venture by Sandrine Veysset the award winning film revolves around a young mother who does her best to bring up her seven children on a vegetable farm in the South of France. She and her children are abused and exploited by her husband, who spends most of his time away from home, staying with his first wife when he is not transporting produce to market.

This striking portrait of rural family life marking Sandrine Veysset's remarkable directoral debut was widely acclaimed in France, winning Veysset a César and the prestigious Louis-Delluc Prize in 1997. Scripted by Antoinette de Robien, Sandrine Veysset, the film stars Dominique Reymond as the Mother and Daniel Duval as the Father.

A woman and her seven children live on a farm in Southern France. In spite of the hard work and the mediocre accommodation, their life would be a happy one, but for one person: the owner of the farm an egotistic and authoritarian individual, who is also the lover of the woman and the father of all her children.

The farmer handles them as his property, uses them as cheap labour to work in the fields, and denies them the right to leave the farm. It is only the love of the woman for her children that allows them to endure their plight; but even for her, disenchantment has set in.Much closer to a documentary than a conventional film drama, the quality of the photography and Dominique Reymond's emotionally charged performance as the struggling mother gives the film a distinctive artistic quality.