Participator of the 55th Berlin International Film Festival, this new film by famous French director Andre Techine (I Don't Kiss, Le Crime) with legendary Catherine Deneuve (should I mention all her great roles? ) and Gerard Depardieu, hasn't deserved even mention at the closing ceremony, despite the obvious weakness of the festival program. 

The film tells about the engineer (Depardieu) who arrived to Marocco as a observer of the new business-centre building. But the real aim of his travelling is to find his first love (Deneuve) who is married to moor, which is much younger than her (and therefore unfaithful to her). She sees her son-homosexual too rarely, works at the local radio station, and her life isn't too joyful. The engineer tries to make her remember their happy days, but she don't want to restore or even remember past life and drives him away.

Techine depicts melancholy with dreadful colours of digged soil - Depardieu's hero have to overcome building sites and digged out places. Urbanist athmosphere of The Tangiers (the place where film is set) can't help making be depressed every its inhabitan (and even viewers I should say). But it's the only felicitous point of the movie. Feebleness of script writers (the director is among them) is obvious - the film is extremely boring! There are no distinct psychological portraits of heroes - they are so trivial! - Deneuve and Depardieu have nothing to play. Moreover, there is no activity - the whole mediation. Ok, we know that there are great films made of the meditation and athmosphere, but the athmosphere of this film is SO depressed and monotonous and the whole film is so shallow that I've almost fallen asleep... Oh, and allusions to the great Casablanca are out of place I think!

So, the movie dissappointed me very much despite my great admiring of Deneuve and I cannot but agree with BIFF jury!
2/10