My Friend Victoria

Eight-year-old Victoria stays for a night with a wealthy white family, an episode that changes her life when they reappear many years later. Based on a story by Nobel-laureate Doris Lessing, My Friend Victoria relocates its black London heroine to contemporary Paris. Coupled with a novelistic approach that follows the characters from childhood to adulthood, the change allows for thoughtful attention to visual detail and storytelling that offers welcome insights into race and class in contemporary France. (95 mins., DCP)