California Premiere

Directed and written by Jennifer Devoldère

Edited by Stephanie Pereira. Cinematography by Laurent Tangy.

With Florence Loiret-Caille, Melanie Laurent and Michel Blanc.

France, 2011. In French with English subtitles. 98mins.

Co-Sponsored by Moses and Susan Libitzky

If your father is closer to your ex-boyfriends than he is to you, you might not have the greatest father/daughter relationship. Such is the case with Justine, played by the always radiant Mélanie Laurent, (The Roundup, SFJFF 2011, Inglourious Basterds) whose hard-nosed father Eli can only learn more about his aloof daughter by befriending her ex-boyfriends. He soon discovers Justine uses her job as an X-ray technician to develop her burgeoning artistic endeavors: assembling life-size human skeletal collages from the patients she scans. Eli agrees to be her next art project in a feeble attempt to get closer to his daughter. His scans reveal he has a serious heart condition, which he keeps secret from the rest of the family. While a new romance with a hunky shoe salesman blossoms for Justine, Eli prepares to have a new baby with his much younger second wife, much to the chagrin of Justine and her sister. A stylish, quirky and honest depiction of a contemporary Jewish family in Paris, The Day I Saw Your Heart marks the impressive debut of filmmaker Jennifer Devoldère, who wrote the script with Mélanie Laurent in mind, and has crafted a film that ultimately celebrates what it means to love.