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The Sea Wall (2009)
Directed by Rithy Panh
Drama · 1h 55m
The film centers on a young French widow and her two adolescent children as they attempt to carve out a meager life for themselves by farming rice fields alongside the ocean in French Indo-China in the 1930s. 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.
Cast
Gaspard Ulliel
Joseph
Isabelle Huppert
Madame Dufresne, la mère
Stéphane Rideau
Agosti
Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey
Suzanne
Vincent Grass
Le père Bart
Lucy Harrison
Carmen
Ingrid Mareski
La femme de Pierre
Crew
- Director
- Rithy Panh
- Writer
- Michel Fessler, Rithy Panh
- Novel
- Marguerite Duras
- Director of Photography
- Pierre Milon
- Original Music Composer
- Marc Marder
- Editor
- Marie-Christine Rougerie
- Producer
- Frédérique Dumas-Zajdela, Cati Couteau, Catherine Dussart
Details
- Original title
- Un barrage contre le Pacifique
- Release date
- 2009-01-07
- Runtime
- 1h 55m
- Genres
- Drama
- Original language
- FR
- Spoken languages
- French
- Countries
- Cambodia, France, Belgium
- Production
- Catherine Dussart Productions, Studio 37, France 2 Cinéma, SCOPE Pictures, Bophana Production