A rambling house on the sparkling Bay of Marseille would seem an unlikely place for reliving trauma, but for three middle-aged siblings gathered at their father's deathbed, "the sea air brings out what is inside." Joseph, a permanently disgruntled veteran of a failed revolution; Armand, who runs the family's modest restaurant; and Angèle, a Paris actress still grieving the little daughter who drowned here, reunite for the first time in decades. Their father had fashioned himself a latter-day communard, but here in the heart of Pagnol country, all the pleasures associated with tradition have now curdled to a seasonal cliché. When a migrant boat deposits three stranded, frightened children in the family's midst, things begin to change. This abandoned coast is once again the "center of the world" for someone. Veteran director Robert Guédiguian expertly deploys the familiarity of his frequent ensemble cast, led by his wife, Ariane Ascaride, as Angèle
