Les Cowboys

Writer Thomas Bidegain (A Prophet, Dheepan) makes his thoughtful directorial debut with a contemporary interpretation of John Ford's western masterpiece The Searchers. Set in modern France, the focus is on cowboy-loving father Alain (Franois Damiens) who embarks on a quest to find his teenage daughter ("no longer a child, not quite an adult") after she abruptly disappears from a local fete to run off with a Muslim lad. So begins a meandering search over several years taking Alain and son Kid (Finnegan Oldfield) from France to Belgium to Pakistan (and a meeting with John C Reilly's enigmatic "contractor"), that reflects the internal tensions within the French nation and Alain's family, as atrocities like 9/11 and subsequent bombings take place on TV in the background. Meanwhile, Damiens impresses as he's transformed from gentle giant to a brooding volcano of frustration and anger. It's unfair to call this meandering drama a remake of Ford's 1956 film, as Bidegain uses it as a template to contemplate themes - race and miscegenation, hatred and love, reconciliation and understanding - that resonate as powerfully in the early 21st century as they did back in the 50s.