A classic and sensual melodrama starring Isabelle Huppert as a widow who must desperately fight to save her land and family.

In this lush period piece set in 1930 French-Colonial Indochina, Isabella Huppert is a revelation as a proud, tough widow and the mother of two grown children who faces seemingly insurmountable problems. Madame Dufresne (Huppert) is duped when the land she buys from the local French authories proves unsuitable for growing rice because rain water periodicly floods the plain, killing the crop. Facing destitution and opportunists waiting in the wings to take advantage of her faiure, Dufresne must do battle with the corrupt colonialists while attempting to build a protective sea wall with the help of locals. Helping her stave off foreclosure is her strapping but hot-headed 20-year-old son Joseph (Gaspard Ulliel) and her lovely daughter Suzanne (Astrid Berges-Frisbey). Barely able to contain her contempt for the aristocratic French colonialists, she nonetheless fixes her daughter up with a seemingly nice and wealthy Chinese businessman. Based on Marguerite Duras' semi-autobiographical novel about her impoverished adolescence in what is now Cambodia, this sweeping melodrama offers top-notch acting, a palpable sensuality, amazing vistas and a storyline eerily relevant today. (French with English subtitles) -- Raymond Murray