Copacabana

Year: 2010
Country: FRANCE
Run Time: 107 minutes

Babou is a woman impossible to forget. Vibrant and eccentric, she refuses to apologize for the way she is. To be sheltered and settled is what she fears most, having traveled the majority of her life, spontaneously moving from place to place. So when her serious and rational daughter Esmerelda announces that she is getting married and that Babou is not invited to the wedding, Babou must decide whether or not it is time to grow up. In her efforts to change, she finds a job as a solicitor for timeshares in Ostende, Belgium. Resourceful and gregarious, Babou excels at her job and is ultimately promoted. The connections she makes with those she meets along her way are impulsive, yet genuine. Her generosity is evident when she secretly offers a vacant apartment to the homeless couple across the street. However, Babou is essentially alone and realizes the only way to repair her relationship with her daughter is for both women to accept one another as they are. With Isabelle Huppert as Babou, COPACABANA is an inspiring story not only about the complicated relationship between a mother and daughter, but also about one woman's refusal to give up on life. (In French with subtitles) – M.M.

• Tweet