This inspired comedy from decidedly offbeat writer-director Alain Guiraudie (No Rest for the Brave) chronicles the midlife crisis of a pudgy, gay tractor salesman (Ludovic Berthillot, in a shrewdly and hilariously minimal performance) who, for a change of pace, runs away with a 16-year-old beauty (a charmingly earnest Hafsia Herzi, who also shone in Abdellatif Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain, SFIFF 2008). The young woman finds herself smitten with her unlikely knight after he defends her (with cash, not brawn) from a group of toughs. After a clumsy consummation of their ardor, the unexpected lovers find themselves pursued by the girl’s father (Luc Palun), a rival tractor salesman, his associates and the local police. But the pursuit narrative is arguably only an excuse for an exquisite assortment of lovingly drawn eccentric characters, who in this delightful film prove a fully justified raison d’être.

View full French Cinema Now schedule


Written by Alain Guiraudie. Photographed by Sabine Lancelin. With Ludovic Berthillot, Hafsia Herzi, Luc Palun, Pascal Aubert. (89 min, Les Films du Losange)