Life is a Very Strange Thing

A Vivid Portrait of France Today

Australian filmmakers, Les McLaren and Annie Stiven, arrange to meet an old friend in Paris - Frederic, a former high school rebel, ethnomusicologist, and multinational executive, now returning from decades abroad, to a France that is both familiar and on edge. They had first met in the early 70s as music enthusiasts in Papua New Guinea, but had then lost contact. In the intervening years, Frederic had become the executive of a multinational garbage business, but returned to find Paris shaken by terror attacks and the rise of nationalist politics.

Frederic is a wily raconteur, and we learn about his grandfather who had been a colonial governor in Cambodia, and his composer father, Charles Duvelle, whose recordings of traditional African music had helped to found the World Music movement. To complete the portrait we also meet Frederic's niece Elvire, a Femen activist who protests against social injustice and the Far Right.

Official Selection at the Brisbane International Film Festival. Official Selection at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival.

"Relaxing and endearing; the film (has) a tangible authenticity. Most enjoyable." - Andrew Urban, Urban Cinefile