April 2008

Messaoud, a 9-year-old Algerian boy, lives in Aubervilliers, a suburb of Paris. Due to his mother’s illness, his father is forced to send him to a foster home in the countryside. The year is 1960 and the context the troubled events of the Algerian war. Gisèle, his foster mother, decides to conceal Messaoud’s identity from the local villagers and, most importantly, from her husband, Georges, a former soldier. Messaoud becomes Michel, or “Michou d’Auber,” and under this name, with the support of Gisèle and Georges’ affection, he is introduced to life in rural France. But Gisèle’s deception is soon revealed, endangering this nascent relationship. Director Thomas Gilou, starring Gérard Depardieu, Nathalie Baye, Mathieu Amalric, Samy Seghir, Akli Fellag.

The year is 1815. Jacquou, a young peasant from the Périgord in southwestern France lives happily with his parents. By the actions of a cruel and arrogant nobleman, the Count of Nansac, he is orphaned and lives in abject poverty. Vowing to take revenge, Jacquou grows up and develops under the protection of the good priest Bonal, who takes him in. Thanks to faithful friends and the patient and radiant young Lina, in a few years’ time he will become a determined, handsome young man. He will learn to transform his desire for vengeance into a fight against injustice, and prove that even a simple peasant can rise above his lot.