Sunday, July 15 | 2 pm
A stirring saga of love and survival set against the backdrop of WWI, The Guardians follows the women of the Paridier farm, who strive to maintain their livelihood and traditions while their loved ones are away at the front. Collapsing under their mounting workload, matriarch Hortense (Moka’s Nathalie Baye) and her daughter Solange hire on stalwart teenage orphan Francine (luminous newcomer Iris Bry), who soon becomes an invaluable member of the household. But when Solange’s husband is captured and Hortense’s youngest son George returns home on leave, a reawakening of romantic desire threatens their collective future. Elevated by Xavier Beauvois’ (Of Gods and Men) graceful long-take style and Michel Legrand’s (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) delicate score, The Guardians is exquisitely attuned to the blue and gold colors of the harvest, the cyclical rhythms of agrarian life, and the inexorable march of time.
Director Xavier Beauvois | 2017 | In French with English subtitles | 138 minutes | R (for some violence and sexuality) | DCP
