Melissa de Raaf

There's no place like home. As long as you know where your heart is.

Isa, a young artist invited to propose a project for an exhibition, sets out to stage a dramatic adaptation of ‘The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas’, a satirical 19th-century novel by Machado de Assis. The rehearsal is marred by difficulties which the viewer must interpret as being due to the fact that Isa is a woman, young, black, all of the above, or as difficulties anyone would encounter.

In this acutely observed and sharply written debut feature from director Sylvie Michel, the contrasting parenting philosophies of a well-to-do divorcee and his immigrant cleaning lady becomes an angry debate over deeper issues of social class and cultural values when their teenage children disappear after a night on the town. (TIFF)