Film Reviews: Cigarettes et Chocolat Chaud

Denis Patar is the loving but woefully overstretched father of Janis, 13, and Mercredi, nine. Juggling jobs at a garden centre and erotic shop, he forgets one too many times to pick up his youngest child from school. Cue the police and a dogged social worker who give the harried widower an ultimatum: either enrol in parenting classes or face losing custody of his brood.

Resistant at first, he puts his unorthodox child-rearing methods on hold and toes the line to prove he is fit to raise his daughters. Heart-warming, deeply moving, and refreshingly whimsical, Cigarettes et Chocolat Chaud asks difficult questions about the nature of parenting and what, ultimately, makes a united and functional family.

Director: Sophie Reine

Cert: PG 

Running time: 98 mins

From France Today magazine

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