Cédric Klapisch's Ce qui nous lie | Back to Burgundy (2016)

Cédric Klapisch's Ce qui nous lie is a title in keeping with the director's principal theme of exploring the nature of relationships, such as familial ones in his earlier Un air de famille (Family Resemblances). The significance of this title (lit. 'What ties us') is unfortunately lost in both the Quéquois title (Retour en Bourgogne) and the English (Back to Burgundy), where the emphasis is on a wine area rather than relationships. The setting is rural Burgundy, where a family owns a thriving vineyard. When their father is dying, brother and sister Jérémie (François Civil) and Juliette (Ana Girardot) greet the return of Jean (Pio Marmaï), although initially Jérémie is full of anger because Jean didn't return for their mother's funeral. The tension is eased, though, when Jean reveals that his wife Alicia (María Valverde) was giving birth to his son at the time. (Jean has been gone for ten years to travel round the world, finally settling to a new life in Australia with his wife and son.)

This is also a time when Jean, as his father is dying and when he discovers (to his great surprise) that his father loved him. With their father dead there is an inheritance problem to solve, and Jean is initially in favour of selling the plantation and the house in part to pay off his debts in Australia. There's a great deal of grape sucking to decide if it's ready for the vendange, a great deal of wine drinking and not a little drunkenness, but in the end blood is thicker than wine and a compromise is reached, meaning that the family still maintains control of the plantation, Jean rents out his share to his siblings, and everyone is content with the situation. It's interesting to compare this with Air de famille.