Favourites of the Moon(Les favoris de la lune)

What Iosseliani called an ‘abstract comedy’, his first French film is a spellbinding drama about the serendipity of life and the evanescence of things. Pivoting on the trajectory of a set of rare Limoges china and a sensual portrait of a nude woman made centuries ago, the roundelay plot is an amusing meditation on the bizarre twists of fate as the objects repeatedly exchange hands. An endless parade of characters – from a thief to an inspector, an art dealer, and a bomb manufacturer – cross the paths to create a symphony of anarchic fantasy, unified in a moral scourging of greed and futile desires. If history doesn’t repeat itself, it certainly rhymes.

Venice Film Festival: Special Jury Prize & OCIC Award