Thomas Bidegain's Les Cowboys opens in the vast prairies of eastern France, where Alain, a central figure in the community, dances and sings along with his family at a Country community festival. Cheerfully taking part in the celebration, Alain quickly finds his world shattered, when he discovers that his sixteen-year-old daughter, Kelly, has gone missing. Searching desperately for any clue to his daughter's whereabouts, Alain learns of his daughter's relationship with Abdul Muhammad, an Arab man, sparking his own intuitions that his daughter was forced to leave against her will. Embarking on a quest to find his daughter, Alain's relentless search finds him venture into far off places in pursuit of his lost daughter, with his son, Kid, being the only individual willing to accompany him on this seemingly futile quest. Featuring a sprawling narrative that spans years and multiple perspectives, Thomas Bidegain's Les Cowboys is a masterclass in the economics of filmmaking, a film that manages to maintain its intimacy no matter the deep-seeded complexities of its story. The first half of the film focuses on Alain's growing obsession with finding his daughter, showcasing how this man is unintentionally sacrificing his own son's youth in an effort to find his daughter. Considering Kelly routinely sends letters updating her family about her new life, many of Alain's friends and family have given up the "search" but Alain relentlessly persists, convinced that his daughter's disappearance was not a choice. Alain's own prejudices have effectively blurred his judgement, with his daughter falling in love with a Muslim man and leaving the country seeming simply inconceivable to him. Even his own son, Kid, begins to see the flaws in his father's pursuit, but when Alain dies in a tragic car crash, Kid's desire to find his sister becomes reinvigorated, triggered at least in part by his own guilt about his father's death. From there, Kid heads down a similar path as his father, only to discover the error of his father's ways when he himself begins to neglect those in his life which he cares about. A film that captures the complexities of the modern world we live in, Les Cowboys is a film that offers more questions than answers, and rightfully so, never pretending to understand or grasp the various complexities of humanity, life and liberty. Preconceived notions and prejudice is one of the central aspects of Les Cowboys, a film that finds Alain's actions, though well-intentioned, destroy his family and indirectly take his own life. His son on the other-hand, through a rigorous experience, becomes able to accept his sister's life decisions, showing an ability to let go of his preconceived notions of his sister's relationship with Abdul and what it might mean, instead focusing on his own family and the new relationship he has begun with an Arab woman. Told through the perspective of Alain and Kid, Les Cowboys never fully explains Kelly's journey to the viewer, only presenting tidbits of the rocky ending to her relationship with Abdul, never covering up for him nor demonizing him. Les Cowboys instead understand that what's most important is that Kelly's relationship with Abdul was a choice of her own free will, for better or worse, with the film beautifully exhibiting how both Alain and Kid succumbed to their own prejudices related to a culture different than their own, emotionally blinded by their well-intentioned fear for their daughter/sister's well-being. A complex film that has lots to digest as it relates to the current state of terrorism, prejudice, migration, and culture, Thomas Bidegain's Les Cowboys is a humanistic story of hope and understanding, a film about the importance of letting go of what you can't control and preconceived notions, focusing on the positives of what one does have, with Kid, unlike his father, not letting his own preconceived notions of anger or frustration blur his ability to see the truth about Kelly's disappearance in the end.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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