In this debut film, we see two kids 16-year-old Syvain( Zacharie Chasseriaud) and 18 year-old Pierre (Jules Pélissier) leading a life of a goat sherd in the beautiful French countryside having such fun as they could swimming under a waterfall, running around and otherwise leading what could be described as an "idyllic life" and working as farm hands under false names when they got the chance but under constant fear of being arrested and having to hide from a countrywide search for them.
After some 10 years, the two kids have reached the age of puberty and need to strike out on their own. But they are in an emotional dilemma: allthough they love their father, they also feel the need to live like other "normal" French kids, getting a driver's license, socializing with other kids their age, doing the kind of silly things that teenagers do and having their girl friends, maybe starting to work etc. But the film real focus is on Sylvain's relationship with his brother and his dad and the unspoken stirrings inside his young heart for some female company, his secret longing to see his mother. However, his heart is torn between loyalty to his father Yes( Nicolas Bouchaud), his attachment to his elder brother and his budding and yet quite natural desire to live the kind of life that he wants the full details of which he has not yet figured out, save that it should somehow be different from the kind of life that he was then living with his dad.
Everything slowly came to a head when, on the spur of the moment, Sylvain's elder brother ran away without a word on the family huge work horse immediately after the two of them decided to go into town, saw other girls and boys of their age having fun at the local bar-restaurant, where Pierre tried to pick up a girl and as a result got into a fight with another boy who thought he shouldn't. Shortly after he's gone, Sylvan got in touch with Pierre on a public phone booth and was told that Pierre was then quite happy working in a bar-restaurant in Orleans, where their mother is also living and asking Sylvain to join him. Sylvain felt the pull but it was not sufficiently strong until he met Gilda (Solène Rigot ), a teenage girl fishing alone on the banks of the Loire, when by accident her fish hook caught his short pants flowing down the Loire which he was desperately swimming after. They got talking and agreed to meet the following day at the same spot for Sylvain to return the small plastic bucket containing some small fishes she caught which she said he could eat if he liked as she herself did not care much for fishes. He learns that she too, lost her mother at age 5. when she and her parents they were on holidays in Spain, the same age he lost his own mother. Gilda is now living alone with a father, a doctor who loves to play the piano and drinks behind her back. Her quite innocent questions prompted Sylvain to reflect on his own situation and what he wanted to do with his own life. When the film ends, we find Sylvain saying good bye to his father to join Pierre. His father knew that it was time that he let his son go and did not stop him. He told Sylvan that he would surrender himself to the authorities. In Orleans, Pierre took him to see where their mother was living and together they observe the window of her apartment from a distance, their heads leaning against each other. When his mother (Christèle Tual) got downstairs, Sylvain follows her to the children's playground where he sees from a distance how she is giving her care and attention to two toddlers, probably his new half brother and sister. The screen fades immediately after we see Sylvain quietly sitting on one side of the bench where his mother was sitting whilst trying to tease her new kids. They they exchange glances at that park bench. The film ends.
What is obvious is that Denizot may be that consciously trying to make allusions to Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn: Pierre was reading the French translation of the novel, something Syvain did too after Pierre left without taking the book with him, the blue grass music and the American folk song sung in the background when Sylvain and Yves were living on a barge by the side of the river, the scenes of an easy and various carefree life out in the open countryside but always with the fear of being caught as a fugitive overhanging their head, spoiling their rural bliss, Sylvain stealing some tomatoes growing in a green house despite his father's warning never to commit any crime which would risk people running after them . ... But there's some really beautiful captures of the French countryside by the cinematography Elin Kirschfink. I like the way Denizot shows the growing attraction of Syvain for Gilda by his father's accidental discovery of the numerous sketches his son makes of Gilda whilst previously Sylvain merely sketched his huge country horse, their dog, Pierre and the countryside. The slightly melancholic piano piece played by Gilda's father on the family piano seems to blend in quite well with relaxed pace of the film with its action not deliberately melodramatic. Everything feels "natural", low-keyed and unforced. If that is what Denizot has in mind, he has succeeded admirably.
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