Gloria Mundi

Against the backdrop of timid hopes and noble dreams of a better future, the young part-time saleswoman, Mathilda, gives birth to her first baby girl. As the arrival of little Gloria brings together her working-class family--proud Uber driver dad, Nicolas; night-cleaner mother Sylvie; her kindly bus-driver husband, Richard; Mathilda's step-sister, Aurore, and her ostentatious boyfriend, Bruno--Mathilda's absent birth father, the grizzled, haiku-reciting ex-convict, Daniel, receives news that he has become a grandfather. Now, after spending twenty long years in a Rennes prison for a hideous youth crime, regretful Daniel returns to his hometown of Marseilles, and, inadvertently, becomes a pillar of the financially hard-pressed family, providing support when each member is a hair's breadth away from despair. And, amid a series of bad luck and in-your-face capitalism, innocent Gloria commands everyone's attention. When earthly glory is but ephemeral, is the child destined to be another cog in the machine or the hope of the world?