Starring Louis-Do de Lencquesaing and Chiara Caselli. In French with English subtitles. Unrated. Plays Friday to Monday, November 5 to 8, and Wednesday and Thursday, November 10 and 11, at the Vancity Theatre

In the movies, lovable producers are about as common as swashbuckling dentists. Nevertheless, Grégoire Canvel (Louis-Do de Lencquesaing), the hero of Mia Hansen-Lí¸ve’s second feature, is precisely that. Based on real-life French film producer Humbert Balsan, Canvel is a motion-picture financier who is more interested in creating art than he is in making money. The Father of My Children is a quiet but agonizing look at how difficult such a balancing act can be in the modern world.

When the film opens, Canvel is trying to get three difficult projects off the ground (one of which is being helmed by a thinly disguised Lars von Trier), even though his creditors have put liens on everything except his back teeth. A faithful husband to a beautiful Italian wife (Chiara Caselli) and loving father to three adoring daughters, this black-sheep industrialist—his mother considers the cinema to be “vulgar”—tries to do right by everyone despite odds that grow longer every day. Thus, his cigarette consumption escalates to ever-more-dangerous levels, and his driving becomes so distracted—at times, he neglects to keep even one hand on the steering wheel—it costs him his licence.

Clearly, a crisis is coming, but what form will it take? And what effect will this have on the countless people who depend on him for just about everything?

Hansen-Lí¸ve takes considerable pains to keep things from getting sentimental. This might be a tribute to her hero, but it is not a mash note.

Except, maybe, to the movies. And the magnificent oddballs who make them happen.