La Moitie Du Ciel

• 2000

• Watchlist

A woman finds herself waging a personal war against Chinese authorities in this drama. Anne Laugel (Caroline Sihol) is a single mother from France who decides she wants another child and arranges to adopt a baby from China. Anne travels to the Guangxi province with her ten-year-old daughter (Jessica Mazars) to pick up the infant, but soon finds the process is not as simple as she had been led to believe. The adoption agent, Zhao (Ying Bing), demands more and more money for his services, the local authorities deliberately slow down their paperwork, and in time Anne is informed she will not be allowed to take the child, who is supposedly too ill to leave the country. Angry and frustrated, Anne decides to defy authorities; she kidnaps the child with the help of a French-speaking student (Xiaoxing Cheng) and a teenage acrobat (Shiang-chyi Chen). But Zhao will not give up the baby without a fight. Leading lady Caroline Sihol also co-wrote the film's screenplay with director Alain Mazars.