This rare celebration of functional families captures the rhythms and rituals of daily life in melting-pot Paris with a subtlety that reinforces its poignant mood of compassion and acceptance. Writer/director Claire Denis's film is suffused with the spirit of Japanese maestro Yasujiro Ozu (An Autumn Afternoon, The End of Summer), and she draws on her own family history to depict the relationship between widowed train driver Lionel (Alex Descas) and his student daughter Joséphine (Mati Diop). Their intuitive intimacy is shared by neighbours Gabrielle (Nicole Dogue) and Noé (Grégoire Colin), who are in love with father and daughter, respectively. But while the performances are taciturnly authentic, it's Denis's use of cinematographer Agnès Godard's meticulously composed imagery that leaves the deepest impression. Whether watching trains snaking through the suburbs or lingering on Diop and Colin as they slow dance in a cosy bar, Denis is more interested in the trust, understanding and love that exists between the quartet than any domestic melodrama, and her discretion makes this movie unforgettable.

A widower and his daughter witness the retirement of a colleague of his and the closing of her department at her university.