My Dead Loved Ones (Mes chers disparus)
Arnaud LECHIEN
Catherine ARDITI
Francis PERRIN
Thomas JOUANNET
Marianne Elbert decides to sell her decrepit house, a property owned by the Elberts for five generations. However, despite the promise of a new beginning for everyone, settling the family inheritance tears at her heart. In front of the family tomb where they rest, Marianne, devastated, utters a futile plea for help to her ancestors. And then, as suddenly as it is unexpected, consequences unfold! The ghosts of her mother, Brigitte, a hippie biker advocating for living fast and enjoying without constraints, her grandmother Marie, a racist and bigoted seamstress emancipated by Coco Chanel, and her great-grandfather Alphonse, a broke twenty-year-old killed in 1917 by German bullets at the Chemin des Dames, find themselves in the middle of the living room, reluctantly pulled from their eternal rest!
To bring her husband José Portal's passion to life and put an end to an unjust administrative eviction threat that could leave her family homeless, Marianne Elbert decides to sell her decrepit house, a property owned by the Elberts for five generations. However, despite the promise of a new beginning for everyone, settling the family inheritance tears at her heart. In front of the family tomb where they rest, Marianne, devastated, utters a futile plea for help to her ancestors. And then, as suddenly as it is unexpected, consequences unfold! The ghosts of her mother, Brigitte, a hippie biker advocating for living fast and enjoying without constraints, her grandmother Marie, a racist and bigoted seamstress emancipated by Coco Chanel, and her great-grandfather Alphonse, a broke twenty-year-old killed in 1917 by German bullets at the Chemin des Dames, find themselves in the middle of the living room, reluctantly pulled from their eternal rest! But why are they really there?
Isn't it an opportunity for Marianne to finally learn about the father her mother was supposed to reveal on her eighteenth birthday? And for everyone, both living and dead, an opportunity to fully embrace the family motto engraved on the fireplace lintel? "Become who you are" or how each one will question, illuminate, and break free from the known and revealed aspects of the family story...
Pour donner vie à la passion de son mari José Portal et couper court à une procédure d’expulsion administrative abusive qui menace de mettre les siens à la rue, Marianne Elbert décide de vendre sa maison décrépite, propriété des Elbert depuis cinq générations. Mais bien que promesse d’un nouveau départ pour tous, solder l’héritage familial lui arrache le cœur. Devant le caveau familial où ils reposent, Marianne lance, anéantie, un dérisoire appel à l’aide à ses ancêtres. Et là, conséquence aussi soudaine qu’inattendue ! Les fantômes de sa mère, Brigitte, motarde hippie apôtre du vivre vite et jouir sans entrave, de sa grand-mère Marie, couturière raciste et bigote, émancipée par Coco Chanel et de son arrière grand-père Alphonse, vingtenaire fauché en 1917 par les balles allemandes au Chemin des Dames, sont au beau milieu du salon, tirés contre leur gré du repos éternel !
Mais pourquoi sont-ils vraiment là ? N’est-ce pas pour Marianne l’occasion de savoir enfin qui est ce père dont sa mère devait lui révéler l’identité le jour de ses dix-huit ans ? Et pour tous, vivants comme morts, l’occasion de faire vivre pleinement la devise familiale gravée sur le linteau de la cheminée ? "Deviens qui tu es" où comment chacun va questionner, éclairer et s’affranchir des pans connus et révélés du roman familial…
