Although I love nature, I’m really a city person. So I really enjoy walking through a forest, but at the end of the day I want to sleep in a luxurious hotel and not in a tent. Of course I’ve slept in hammocks abroad a couple of times, but I was always glad to make the journey back to stay in a real house or hotel again. The protagonist in this French movie doesn’t need all the luxury and prefers to live in forests and eat what’s available.
Together with his wife and three sons Philippe Fournier (Mathieu Kassovitz) lives away from the city in a caravan. The opens at the moment when he grabs his car to get some groceries. When he leaves his wife grabs her bags, their sons and flees away to her parents. She wants to divorce him and awaiting the judgement of a judge they come to an agreement allowing him to see them once in a while. When Philippe goes on a short holiday with two of his sons he takes a drastic decision: He won’t return his sons and will raise them in nature. When their mother notices this she goes to the police. It is the start of a search which will last many years.
The story on which Vie Sauvage is based is real and it’s understandable that parents are willing to do anything to make their children happy, raise and be with them. But it is a very extreme step to do what Philippe does and you really have to know what you are doing when you decide to live that way. It is something he manages to do for a long time. You could call this movie objective. Even though the focus is on the father, it seems to register the events without judging. Still you start wonder while you are watching this if this is the best thing for the children. Will they be able to find their way in society? Vie Sauvage isn’t a spectacular movie which is filled with moments that stay with you, but it does make you think about living your own life in a different way. It might be something I wouldn’t immediately do, but I do see the beauty of living more closely to nature.
