The Salt of Tears at Cinema Akil

The Salt of Tears is the latest film from the award-winning French director Philippe Garrel, and had its world premiere at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Veteran film-maker Garrel gives us this new movie in the classic black-and-white Parisian style, co-written by him with two titans of the French industry, Jean-Claude Carrière and Arlette Langmann.

This movie is about Luc, a young cabinet maker who moves to Paris to follow his dreams of becoming a carpenter. While living in the city of lights, though, he ends up falling in love with three different women.

It is a watchable, insouciant love story with some great incidental performances, although there is a sense of the shark being jumped 30 minutes from the end. The tears involved are incidentally shed by female characters, not the young male lead, although the excellent veteran André Wilms has a moving, emotional moment.

This screening is also the picture’s Gulf premiere. It’s part of Cinema Akil’s FrancoFilm Festival, which is returning to Dubai for its 11th edition, and is a celebration of the French language in movies.