FAREWELL, HOME SWEET HOME
ADIEU, PLANCHER DES VACHES!



France-Switzerland-Italy, 1999, 118 min, color

The story is set in a luxurious estate on the outskirts of Paris, run and maintained by the mother, a successful businesswoman, while father indulges in hedonistic "dolce far niente", drinking, and clay pigeon shooting. Their son Nicolas, who spent his childhood surrounded by governesses and serving-maids, decides at the age of 17 that it is time to experience "real life". He starts to live on his own: he secretly goes off to the city where he works as a dishwasher and hangs out with bums.

"The title is metaphorical, the expression was supposedly used by sailors who felt homesick after a longer period of life at sea, but when they returned home, to land, they soon longed for the sea."

"Otar Ioseliani is one of the major poets of our time who seems to offer a carefree narration when, in fact, he weaves the threads of his fiction with a subtle determination. The melancholy of his latest film, its lightness of tone and its mixture of gaiety and sadness are expressed mostly through his visual style."