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• Cinando
• 16 results
• Lumiere
• Admissions in 5 European countries

Year of production : 2016

Director(s) : Alain GUIRAUDIE
Cast : Damien BONNARD, India HAIR, Raphaël THIERRY, Basile MEILLEURAT

Producer(s) : Benoît QUAINON, Sylvie PIALAT, Rémi BURAH, Olivier PÈRE

Alain Guiraudie, the director of Stranger by the Lake (winner of a FIPRESCI at the 13th New Horizons), sets his new film in the barren landscape of the deserted, pastoral department of Lozère in southern France. Passed on from mouth to mouth, old legends about the Beast of Gévaudan spur a young filmmaker to set out in search of inspiration for a still-unwritten screenplay. Buried in debt and trying, unsuccessfully, to catch up on missed deadlines, Leo lets himself be swept away by the current of events. He meets a vibrant shepherdess named Marie who is raising two sons on her own. The fruit of their romance is not just another child but a series of adventures straight out of a hallucination. Suffering from postpartum depression, Marie leaves for a nearby town, while Leo has to face not only the challenge of fatherhood, but also the men circling around him. Guiraudie combines the atmosphere of myths and legends about the connection between man and nature, as embodied by bloodthirsty wolves, with the threats of contemporary society. He creates a world where status and social roles, as well as sexual identities, appear unstable and less than obvious. Holding nothing back, Guiraudie's grotesque tale is an allegory of life in contemporary France, where staying vertical is not so easy.