XXL (1997) Plot Summary Explained

Release, runtime and language

1997 · 95 mins · French

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Directed by

Ariel Zeitoun

Starring

Gina Lollobrigida, Elsa Zylberstein, Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Jacob, Emmanuelle Riva, Gad Elmaleh

Tunisian‑Jewish businessman Alain Berrebi woos Ashkenazi heiress Arlette Stern. Her father David learns that a rural Auvergne farmer who once sheltered him and his cousin Nathan during the Holocaust has died. Nathan, now a New York diamond dealer, joins David, Arlette and Berrebi for the funeral, where they meet the farmer’s son Jean Bourdalou, a Paris restaurant owner. Romantic tensions flare, sending a distraught Berrebi to his mother Gaby for comfort, while Bourdalou and Berrebi hatch plans for a trendy fashion‑restaurant in Manhattan.