Legendary filmmaker Chantal Akerman's newest film defies definition but can perhaps be described as a semi-autobiographical, absurd farce, or as Akerman herself describes it: “A comedy that only a pessimist could make.” Charlotte Weinstein, a child of Holocaust survivors, attempts to make room in her cluttered apartment for her newly widowed mother. Charlotte is experiencing an acute case of writer's block that is preventing her from completing her erotic novel. This predicament is exacerbated when her mother repeatedly smokes up the small flat with the smell of chicken cooked the way her deceased husband liked it. The only solution? Sell the place for something bigger. The apartment goes on the market, bringing through the door a group of prospective buyers that only complicate the situation.

Co-sponsored by the Embassy of Belgium, the Embassy of France and the Alliance Francaise de Washington, DC

Invited guest: Chantal Akerman