I’ll Be Right Here

Bloom (White Houses) continues her exploration of what it means to be a family with this stimulating story of a Frenchwoman who builds a new life in the U.S. after WWII. In 1942, 17-year-old Gazala goes to work as a masseuse for the writer Colette. After the war, Colette helps Gazala immigrate to New York City, where she takes up her deceased father’s trade as a baker and befriends two customers, sisters Anne and Alma Cohen, and regularly joins them for family dinners. Shortly thereafter, her adopted older brother, Samir, shows up out of the blue and the two become life partners and secret lovers. The Cohen sisters along with Anne’s partner, Honey, form such a tight bond with Gazala and Samir that they think of each other as family and make plans to leave the city for Poughkeepsie, where Gazala and Samir eventually run a department store. Their makeshift family extends to include Anne’s daughter and grandson and the granddaughter of their real estate agent, who comes to live with Gazala and Samir as a surrogate daughter. Though the story loses some steam after the siblings first arrive in America, Bloom rights the ship with her thoughtful and complex character development. It’s a memorable portrait of a found family’s fulfillment. Agent: Jennifer Rudolph Walsh, WME. (June)