Les cowboys (2015)

May 18, 2015 (Cannes), November 25, 2015 (France), release dates

Directed by Thomas Bidegain

Screenplay by Noé Debré, Thomas Bidegain

Music by Raphaël Haroche

Edited by Géraldine Mangenot

Cinematography by Arnaud Potier

François Damiens as Alain Balland

Finnegan Oldfield as Georges Balland

Agathe Dronne as Nicole Balland

Ellora Torchia as Shazhana

John C. Reilly as the American

Antoine Chappey as Charles

Iliana Zabeth as Kelly Balland

Mounir Margoum as Ahmed

Antonia Campbell-Hughes as Emma

Laure Calamy as Isabelle

Sam Louwyck as the forger

Dani Sanchez-Lopez as the European

Produced by Les Productions du Trésor, Pathé Productions, France 2 Cinéma, Lunamine, Les Films du Fleuve

Les cowboys is a powerful film and worth watching whether you decide it’s a neo-noir or an updated Western. The film has been described as a modern version of The Searchers, a 1956 Western directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. I cannot remember where I read this, and I didn’t find anything about it from an online search or from the director Thomas Bidegain’s discussion about the making of the film on the DVD.

The Balland family members attend a country festival in a rural area of France; it’s October 1994—before the September 11, 2001, attacks, which becomes more significant later in the story. Alain Balland, the father, is well known in the community and is asked to sing on stage. After his short singing performance, he dances with his daughter, and viewers see that there is real affection between them. Brief shots show that the same affection exists between all the Balland family members. But before the festival is over, Kelly disappears, and her parents learn some secrets that she has been keeping from them.

In spite of her secrets, Kelly does have something in common with her father: Both of them embrace different cultures wholeheartedly. Alain loves cowboys and country music, distinctly American ideas. The song he sings on stage at the country festival is American, and he sings it in English. Kelly also embraces another culture, but she apparently abandons her native French culture altogether. She leaves France and her family behind to move to another country, and she takes on another identity—permanently. Her approach is more extreme, but she and her father do have this trait in common.

(This blog post about Les cowboys contains spoilers.)

It becomes obvious, before too long, that finding Kelly will be the responsibility of her family, not of the authorities, and they do what they can to find her. Fate plays a large role in the film. The Balland family members left behind after Kelly’s departure did not ask to be put in that situation and must confront its ramifications almost daily. Their confusion and despair form the basis of the angst in Les cowboys. The story centers on the Balland family’s struggles, but they are not the only ones dealing with confusion and angst: The parents of the boy that Kelly leaves with also struggle with doubt and confusion about their son.

Alain Balland is relentless in his search for this daughter. His zeal, although appreciated on some levels, begins to tear his family apart because he is so single-minded about it. Alain and Georges Balland (Kelly’s father and brother, respectively) negotiate illegal dealings for information about Kelly’s whereabouts, which, of course, puts them in danger. When Georges travels to the Middle East as an adult, he is in even more danger. But it doesn’t seem like he will, like he can, give up. The American in the story explains it to Georges Balland with something like this: “You can never go back. Once you have seen a place like this, your home becomes too small for people like us.” Fate is playing its hand the Balland family’s life once again.

I found the story incredibly moving and the characters entirely believable. In fact, I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. And John C. Reilly was fantastic in his part described simply as the American. I have enjoyed Reilly’s acting in many films, and I can add Les cowboys to the list.

The film portrays the main and supporting characters evenhandedly. Yes, some characters perform evil acts, but the main characters are fleshed out, and one cannot say that each character’s decision is either right or wrong. Each character does what he or she feels is best under the circumstances. Expertise, born of persistence and learning on the fly, does triumph eventually, but on the small scale—in the personal world of the main characters. The film does not offer any answers for the grand scale—the global and political backdrop against which the characters are forced to live. It offers a wonderful and moving story that leaves judgments to the viewers.