The Safe House

Swiss filmmaker Lionel Baier gives the events of May ’68 in Paris an unusually lighthearted but multilayered treatment in this winsome portrait of a 9-year-old and his extended stay in his grandparents’ apartment while his parents join the earth-shaking student protests exploding all over the city. As the demonstrations outside swell, the family reunion inside the walls expands to include his artistic and intellectual-minded uncles and outspoken Odessa-born great-grandmother, until they are joined by an unexpected guest. Adapted from the novel La cache by Christophe Boltanski—a nephew of the renowned French artist Christian Boltanski—The Safe House is an entertaining portrait of a free-spirited Jewish family that recreates a vibrant and intense historical moment from a surprising perspective.