Les Cowboys Monday, September 17, 7pm Davis Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum France • 2015 104 mins • M violence, offensive language, drug use In English, French and Urdu, with English subtitles
Inspired by John Ford's The Searchers, screenwriter Thomas Bidegain (A Prophet) debuts as director with this twisty and provocative thriller about a father lookingfor his daughter, who has run away with a jihadist. Memberships and more info at www.whanganuifilmsociety.org.nz
REVIEW "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
