Thomas Bidegain – director – Les Cowboys

FRED’s Bénédicte Prot interviews Thomas Bidegain, director of the film Les Cowboys from the Director’s Fortnight programme of the 68th Cannes Film Festival.

Seasoned screenwriter Thomas Bidegain (who has scripted many acclaimed titles and is Jacques Audiard’s long-term collaborator, including on his latest, Dheepan) explains why he decided to try his hand at directing, what he took from his experience alongside other directors, and from his own cinephilia, to make an impressive debut feature that is markedly his own creation.

LES COWBOYS: Les Cowboys tells how a normal family who loves the country music culture is confronted with its very own “Indians” when their daughter Kelly disappears, after enrolling in the Jihad, at a time when no one had a clue in the Western world – for the film starts in 1994 and spans over fifteen years or so.

With splendid mountains and sad songs in the background, we follow a father’s desperate quest, and a son’s continued odyssey to rebuild some form of family, and make peace. A beautifully mastered debut film.