Famed screenwriter Thomas Bidegain makes his directorial debut with Les Cowboys. The story opens in France, where Alain (François Damiens), is enjoying an American themed fair with his family, that is until his sixteen-year-old daughter Kelly (Iliana Zabeth) goes missing. His concern grows when he learns that she has runaway with a Arab boyfriend, Ahmed (Mounir Marghoum), who Alain fears is forcing his religious beliefs onto her. Kelly never does return home, leaving Alain a nervous and troubled wreck, letting both prejudice and his fatherly instincts consume him.
Alain becomes totally absorbed with his search for his daughter, even though she leaves a note urging for the family to let her go. His concern for his daughter directly effects his life at home, straining the relationship between his wife (Agathe Dronne) and son, who is simply known as Kid (Maxim Driesen). He brings along with son Kid for a good chunk of the ride, as he treks across parts of France in search of his daughter. If it sounds familiar, it’s because it takes inspiration from John Ford’s 1956 classic The Searchers.
The story unfolds in two parts, with the first focused on the father’s search for Kelly, while the second revolves around a grown up version of the Kid (played by Finnegan Oldfield). It’s in this second part where we see the Kid in a post 9/11 timeline, which intensifies the political influences and feelings for his search, for both him and the audience.
Thomas Bidegain (co-writer of A Prophet and Rust and Bone) uses the two part set up to interesting effect. It was jarring to me at first to see the baton passed from Alain to the Kid. It’s a somewhat unexpected, but completely welcome cameo appearance from John C. Reilly as a mysterious American that really announces the shifting of gears.
The political themes of the film are extremely relevant to todays political climate, especially in light of the tragic events that occurred in Paris. There’s a bit of a narrow worldview at hand, and the recent events certainly won’t do any favors with how it’s received.
It takes a few problematic turns, and doesn’t finish with the same level of intensity or intrigue that it started with, but for the first 45 minutes or so, Les Cowboys certainly had me intrigued. It loses a bit of focus and has some pacing issues once it focuses on the Kid in the future, but despite some troubles it managed to surprise and provide some powerful moments.
All in all, a solid directorial debut from Thomas Bidegain.
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