Memory Lane

Director: Mikhaël Hers
Cast: Thibault Vinçon, Dounia Sichov, Lolita Chammah
France, 98’, 2010, color
French with Turkish subtitles

Late August, early September, the twenty something characters of Mikhaël Hers's Memory Lane come together in the Parisian suburb where they grew up. Some still live there, while others, like migrating birds, are drawn back by the inviting weather—or, like any good son or daughter, the whims and pains that afflict their parents. An ode to looking out windows, at least for part of its running time, the film builds a mood of nostalgia from its scarcely florid fixation on atmosphere: the blustery wind, chirping insects, a gorgeous hilltop view of distant Paris.