Día de mareas

On a beach in Le Havre, the lifeless body of a man is found. In his trouser pockets, they discover a single clue: a phone number scribbled on the back of a movie ticket. It belongs to the narrator, a middle-aged woman who dubs films and audiobooks and lives in Paris with her partner and daughter. The police call draws her back to the port city where she grew up and to which she hasn't returned in years. She doesn't know the dead man—or so she believes—and the police offer her no conclusive answers. Despite this, she decides to stay in Le Havre for a few more hours. During her stay, the city becomes not merely a physical space for her, but also a mental one. She wanders through the places where she spent her youth: the docks, the old cinemas, the beaches, the bars of her teenage years… After the bombings it suffered during World War II, Le Havre has been rebuilt upon both visible and invisible ruins and emerges here as a character in its own right. The opaque and impersonal police investigation is overlaid with memories of a first love abruptly cut short. Little by little, the narrative delves into more personal and intimate territory…