If you have kids then you have the natural instinct to watch them, be there for them and protect them. Nevertheless, from the start you should already slowly let go so that they can learn from the mistakes they make and ultimately spread their wings. However, when you see that the freedom you give them is a bit too much, you’ll have to restrict it again to make it safe.
It is a constant process that I’m constantly working on myself, but the older your children get, the more you realize that you can’t and shouldn’t try to check everything. There is a chance that it all goes incredibly wrong. I regularly read about parents who left their child home alone and they ended up inviting friends who brought alcohol and they had to be hospitalized for alcohol poisoning. With those stories in mind it is important to inform rather than to limit so that you keep talking to each other instead of having a teenager who shuts you out and starts having secrets for you. That is exactly what the main character from Les Cowboys realises. A secret that will affect the whole family deeply.
Balland Alain (François Damiens) is accompanied by his wife, son Georges (Finnegan Oldfield) and daughter Kelly to a western event. They enjoy the atmosphere until Alain can’t seem to find his daughter. He starts asking around, but no one knows where she is. Then he hears from some of her friends that Kelly has a boyfriend. He learns that Kelly has converted to Islam, changed her name and has left with him. Alain however, wants his daughter back and starts a dangerous search, together with his son Georges, to find the couple who seems to keep moving from place to place, not wanting to be found.
What I find so fascinating about this movie is that it is not like other movies constantly working out every detail extensively. Through short dialogue you find out what Alain and Georges have done, where they’ve been and how much time has elapsed. The film contains unexpected and poignant moments, but gradually it loses some focus and adds short narratives which really don’t add anything (like a love relationship that Georges has). Through news reports about terrorist attacks in London and Spain director Bidegain tries to add yet another layer to the search and the intent is clear, but this lacks subtlety in that aspect. Les Cowboys is not a bad movie, but in the end I had the feeling that it could have been better.
