It's Easier for a Camel

Federica (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is a charming yet whimsical playwright in this self-effacing, quasi semi-autobiographical comedy.

Young Federica is a daydreamer, whose vivid imagination allows the impossible to become possible. As a thirty-something adult, she is consumed by privileged guilt and finds solace in her reveries as distractions for life’s realities. Her boyfriend Pierre (Jean-Hugues Anglade) desires a real family, a role that Federica is not yet ready to play, which is further aggravated by the reappearance of a former lover. Her trivial bubble is soon burst though by the announcement of her father’s terminal illness and the ensuing family feuds, most notably with her sister Bianca (Chiara Mastroianni).

Director Valeria Bruni Tedeschi’s debut film has won prestigious awards at the Tribeca Film Festival and the Louis Delluc Prize for best French film, the latter recognized as a national benchmark of quality.
Proving as adept behind the camera as in front, the actress-cum-filmmaker (not to mention sister of France’s first lady Carla Bruni and partner of indie hunk Louis Garrel), has crafted out a niche of quirky, independent film in France, which draws to mind the likes of Little Miss Sunshine across the ocean or Happy Go Lucky on this side of the channel.
The insightful narrative ebbs along with seamless ease, incorporating striking surrealist touches and innovative, cinematic techniques (animation and dream-sequences), which make for enjoyable and unforgettable viewing.
Tedeschi brings together a top-drawer ensemble cast, including: Mastroianni (Persepolis, Les Chansons d’amour), Lambert Wilson (Of Gods and Men, The Matrix Reloaded), Yvan Attal (My Wife is an Actress, Leaving) and Emmanuelle Devos (Read My Lips, Coco Before Chanel).

An offbeat comedic drama about the meaning of life, responsibility and death, It’s Easier for a Camel is one of the best-kept secrets to come out of French cinema in the last decade.