With: François Damiens (Alain Balland), Finnegan Oldfield (Georges Balland, “Kid”), Agathe Dronne (Nicole Balland), Ellora Torchia (Shazhana), John C. Reilly (the American), Antonia Campbell Hughes (Emma)
Director: Thomas Bidegain
Producer: Alain Attal
Production co: Les Productions du Trésor, Pathé, France 2 Cinéma, Les Films du Fleuve, Lunanime, VOO, BeTV, RTBF
Screenplay: Thomas Bidegain, Noé Debré
Photography: Arnaud Potier
Editor: Geraldine Mangenot
Music: Raphael Haroche
REVIEWS

“Best known as co-writer of Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet and Rust and Bone, Thomas Bidegain makes a striking directing debut with this timely twist on a classic Hollywood theme. 

A French family obsessed with country and western is thrown into crisis when teenage daughter Kelly suddenly disappears.  Stetson-toting father Alain (François Damiens) heads off in pursuit, later accompanied by his son ‘Kid’.   As time passes and we move into the uncertainties of the 21st-century, this twisty, provocative drama-thriller offers a modern variant on John Ford’s The Searchers, with Alain in the John Wayne role as a man forced to confront his own prejudices – not about Native Americans, but about Islam and its transformation of the contemporary world.

With terrific performances from Damiens, up-and-comer Finnegan Oldfield, and John C Reilly, Les Cowboys combines real-world commentary and classic French cinephilia to potent effect.”

— Jonathan Romney, London Film Festival 2015
FILM SOCIETY SCREENINGS

Wellington
Monday, 2 July, 6:15pm

Auckland
Monday, 9 July, 6:30pm

Hamilton
Monday, 16 July, 8:00pm

Nelson
Thursday, 26 July, 6:00pm

Dunedin
Wednesday, 1 August, 7:30pm

Tauranga
Wednesday, 8 August, 6:15pm

Palmerston North
Monday, 20 August, 6:00pm

Timaru
Tuesday, 28 August, 7:00pm

Carterton
Friday, 7 September, 7:30pm

Whanganui
Monday, 17 September, 7:00pm
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French Connections selection presented with the cooperation of the Embassy of France and Institut Français