Before Words

Pascale leaves Jan to start a new life with Didier. Unwillingly, Jan accepts to get a babysitter for their seven year old son, Thomas. She leaves him at his family home where she now has to live with her new partner. But when Pascale comes to love with Didier, Jan is still there and refuses to leave the house and separate herself from her child. Very quickly, conflict explodes and in less than a day, the destiny of each character is turned upside down.

Leila and Damien are deeply in love. Despite his bipolar disorder, he tries to pursue his life with her, knowing he may never be able to offer her what she desires.

Young and full of life, Murielle has a promising future ahead of her when she meets and falls head over heels for Mounir. A wedding soon follows, and the happy couple quickly set about preparing to make a family. However, with family come ties, and none come as tight as that between Mounir and his adoptive father. As Murielle continues to bring new life into the family, frictions between Mounir and Doctor Pinget reach boiling point. Helpless to extract her husband and children from the wealthy nest that Doctor Pinget has provided for them, Murielle is drawn into an unhealthy family dynamic. There is only one way out of this nightmare, and for Murielle all sense of reasoning begins to abandon her.

Pascale leads a lonely life with her adult sons François and Thierry at a rural estate subsidized by her ex-husband's alimony payments. When Pascale falls for neighbor Jan, she makes plans to move in with him. But Pascale's twin sons -- loafers who treat her like a servant and refuse to accept the responsibilities of adulthood -- won't let her go. The family remains locked in a stalemate until someone makes a startling move.

Claire and Pierre's marriage hits the skids after Claire, pregnant with twins, feels that one embryo is crushing the other and decides to abort half the pregnancy.

Marie and Boris decide to get a divorce after 15 years of marriage. Tensions rise when cash-strapped Boris must continue to live with Marie and the two children while trying to figure out how to divide the assets.

Jacques Arnault, head of Sud Secours NGO, is planning a high impact operation: he and his team are going to exfiltrate 300 orphan victims of the Chadian civil war and bring them to French adoption applicants. Françoise Dubois, a journalist, is invited to come along with them and handle the media coverage for this operation. Completely immersed in the brutal reality of a country at war, the NGO members start losing their convictions and are faced with the limits of humanitarian intervention.

Despite adversity, Sana wants her twins to have a spring vacation, but all her plans fall through. They secretly decide to stay in her former in-laws' villa on the Riviera, without telling anyone. Six days of sunshine that mark the end of innocence.

Sybille, a divorced mother, can't stand watching her teenage son Samuel slip into a violent and meaningless life. She is also struggling with her own demons, past and present. As a last resort, she takes Samuel on a long journey across Kyrgyzstan.

Astrid is the wife of an acclaimed lawyer. Silenced for 25 years, her family balance suddenly collapses when her children initiate their search for justice.

An aspiring tennis player is taken under the wing of an established player as his family life falls apart.

The efforts of a Belgian director who has to stick posters of his film everywhere and harass crowds to get people to come and see his film. When it turns out to be a flop, he is jobless and his partner leaves him. An ironic account of rising director Joachim La Fosse’s directing debut.

At the twilight of their lives, Alice and Jean would have been lovers, parents and grandparents. But if this cycle ends peacefully for Alice, Jean, for his part, experiences the slow loss of his physical and mental means.