The Safe House (La cache)
Director: Lionel Baier
France/Switzerland/Luxembourg | 2025 | French with English subtitles | 90 min
NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE
In May 1968, while his parents take part in the student and worker protests on the streets of Paris, 9-year old Christophe (the delightful Ethan Chimienti) stays with his eccentric grandparents, uncles and great-great grandmother in the Boltanski family’s charming and mysterious Parisian apartment. A bulwark against the world, the apartment–and the family–are a universe unto themselves, propelled by creativity and politics, joy and love, but also the scars of wars passed down through the generations and the enduring weight of antisemitism and the Holocaust.
Adapted with visual and narrative flair by Swiss director Lionel Baier from the semi-autobiographical novel La cache by Christophe Boltanski—nephew of the renowned French artist Christian Boltanski—The Safe House makes tremendous use of an extraordinary cast, including Dominique Reymond (Olivier Assayas’s Summer Hours), Liliane Rovère (Call My Agent), and the unforgettable Michel Blanc in his final screen performance.
World Premiere In Competition – Berlinale Film Festival
“One of the most charming, intimate, and heartwarming films of this year’s Berlinale… It’s a story you’re likely to remember for a long time. Because sometimes, all we really need is to lose ourselves again in the boundless imagination of childhood and see the complex adult world through its sincere, unfiltered lens. And in this, Safe House succeeds almost flawlessly.” –Film Folly
“Playful and joyous… embellished with an array of daring visual innovations… an atypical, colourful and high-energy film.” –Cineuropa
