First Assistant Director
In 1921, Charles, a young Luxembourgish cartographer is sent to Albania as part of a border commission to gather information on the topography and the people of the region. The country has recently become independent, but it does not yet have clearly defined borders. Back in Paris, Charles gets to report to the Conference of Ambassadors. At first, he is overwhelmed by the impressive architecture and the intimidating grandeur of the event. However, he soon learns that the party of self-serving diplomats has little interest in the future of the people he has just met. With no representative of Albania even present, Charles feels the need to speak up for the young country. Despite breaking protocol in doing so, Charles shares an observation with the quarrelling diplomats that allows them to find a peaceful solution to the question of where to draw the urgently needed borders.
Second Assistant Director
Like every year, André, manager of a company named ALTER NATIVE that furnishes sanitary article, invites his seven employees to a quietly festive Christmas weekend. Yet, unlike the years before, André has bad news. He is terminally ill and wants to hand over his company to one of them. He will announce his successor in the course of the weekend. His collaborators immediately turn into competitors. When his own son, Philippe, whom nobody knew about, makes a sudden appearance, cards are redistributed, but suspicion quickly arises that André plays a deceptive game. While his employees, in a crazy race behind the back of the others, try to make their mark, Philippe tries to understand the obscure game his father is playing. And what role does the hotel owner play in all this? Jingle bells? Jingle bells!
