When Clémence Hébert returns to Cherbourg, her hometown, it is to film what remains of her father, who died of alcoholism in the fire in his apartment. A few photos, letters, family videos. By comparing these archives with portraits of her loved ones, she stages the encounter between past and present and tries to reconnect with what she has fled. The camera passes from hand to hand, from parents to children, from the living to the dead... The family film is completed and the story of a lineage is revealed. Cherbourg is a port city and the men of this family are fishermen. The father's boat is a film about the mourning of the father, of childhood and of paradise lost.
When Clémence Hébert returns to Cherbourg, her hometown, it is to film what remains of her father, who died of alcoholism in the fire in his apartment. A few photos, letters, family videos. By comparing these archives with portraits of her loved ones, she stages the encounter between past and present and tries to reconnect with what she has fled. The camera passes from hand to hand, from parents to children, from the living to the dead... The family film is completed and the story of a lineage is revealed. Cherbourg is a port city and the men of this family are fishermen. The father's boat is a film about the mourning of the father, of childhood and of paradise lost.