A phenomenal showcase of France’s most renowned actors relishing the challenges of an extraordinary narrative, A Christmas Tale reaches great heights of emotion thanks to the masterful direction by Arnaud Desplechin.

It’s Christmas in Roubaix, and a family get together is shaded by the recently diagnosed illness that threatens the life of Junon (Catherine Deneuve). Only a successful blood match with one of her children can save her, but a complex set of inter-relations in the family ensures nothing will be easy. Far from morbid, the tale is rich in black humour, and irony as the French do so very, very well.

This outrageous, funny and heart-rending romp through the dysfunction of the middle class was one of 2008’s most celebrated French films.