Jauris Casanova

Niels is overjoyed when he hears about the black hole that will drastically reduce his prison sentence. He’s been chosen for his talents as a mechanic to take part in a special mission: escorting a band of eccentric scientists in a spaceship to a black hole that is fifty light years away from Earth. The deal seems more than correct to him as the mission will only take six weeks for them to see Earth again. There’s only one small annoying detail. Those six weeks in hyperspace represent some hundred years on Earth. And that is if everything will go as planned.

Seaside takes place in a small coastal town on the Bay of Somme. The year-round inhabitants find ways to make their lives work; Paul, a lifeguard in the summer, works at the grocery all winter. His mother, Rose (Ogier) likes to play the slots just about anytime; his girlfriend Marie works in the local factory - the town's biggest business - but watching the summertime vacationers each year just makes her increasingly curious about what else might be out there. From these and several other stories, aided by close, revealing observations, we see a community perched between transition and stasis.

June 1946: Stalin invites Russian emigres to return to the motherland. It's a trap: when a ship-load from France arrives in Odessa, only a physician and his family are spared execution or prison. He and his French wife (her passport ripped up) are sent to Kiev. She wants to return to France immediately; he knows that they are captives and must watch every step.