One Man and his Cow

The one great passion in the life of Fatah, a smallholder in Algeria, is his cow Jacqueline. When an invitation arrives from the Agricultural Show in Paris he sets off: by boat to Marseille, then north on foot across France with the cow in tow. The shape is a road movie, but the substance is encounters. Fatah meets people in rural France who could not be less like him, and the cow works as a conversation opener nobody can refuse. Mohamed Hamidi keeps the comedy in front to stop any of this turning didactic, and the fallen aristocrat played by Lambert Wilson is one of the characters holding that balance. Fatsah Bouyahmed takes the lead and is one of the screenwriters. Jamel Debbouze both appears and helped produce. It opened in France on 17 February 2016 and took eight million dollars against a budget of five and a half million. Who it is for: viewers who like warm-hearted French popular comedy and road movies. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a sharp political stance or an unpredictable story, since the film chooses to stay gentle throughout.