A friend and I like to go see French movies as a way to maintain or improve our French language skills. Her French is much better than mine. I understood very little of the French is this film. (Thank goodness for subtitles!) My friend said that she didn't understand much of the French either. The characters all speak in a modern regional dialect. The French we studied in school 50 years ago is now considered archaic. That said, we both enjoyed this sweet and wise movie about adolescents in the rural French region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (which borders Switzerland). The story concerns Totone, a boy who looks about 15 years old. He lives on a small dairy farm with his father and his little sister. I assumed that the mother was dead. The father has a hard life being a single parent. He works the farm by day and by night takes the kids to places where he gets drunk and dances with the local women. Everybody in this movie consumes a lot of alcohol except the little girl, who appears to be in the primary grades of elementary school. On one such evening, the father realizes that he has had too much to drink and decides he should go home alone and let the kids get home by themselves. (Totone has a motor bike and can carry his sister home with him when he leaves.) Since the father is drunk, it is no surprise when he has a fatal accident, leaving Totone alone to run the farm and take care of his little sister. Of course, Totone has social problems, like getting into fights with other boys (and always getting beaten). He is able to get a job, but gets fired quickly. He sells most of their assets and then hits upon the idea of entering a cheese-making competition where the prizes are big. He has one obstacle after another. You have to root for the kid, even though it's easy to see that he's really too immature for all these responsibilities. There is a shocking amount (to me) of sex among young teenagers. Of course, my coming of age was a long time ago when there was not birth control readily available. And I'm American, whom the Europeans consider puritanical. (Maybe we are. I'm old, so it doesn't matter.) If I had kids, I wouldn't want them to see this movie because I wouldn't want them getting ideas. 😊
The film was directed by Louise Courvoisier, who also co-wrote the screenplay. This was her first feature and she has made a fine film with excellent performances from non-professional actors. Ms. Courvoisier is a clever lady and has a trick or two up her sleeve. I thought the movie was one thing, but it turns out to be something else that is much better. This is an impressive achievement.
