A nice initiating story

DAY

Maxime Le Flaguais and young Lilou Roy-Lanouette form an endearing father-daughter duo in the film Rodéo, a tender and touching initiatory story, beautifully brought to life by director Joëlle Desjardins Paquette. 

A fan of truck rodeos, Serge (Maxime Le Flaguais) has always dreamed of bringing his 9-year-old daughter, Lily (Lilou Roy-Lanouette), to Alberta to introduce her to the legendary Badlands World's Best Truck Rodeo, the biggest festival of truckers in the country. Especially since since he separated from Lily's mother, Serge doesn't often have the chance to spend time with her. 

And unfortunately, the relationship between Serge and his ex does not seem about to improve. After a violent argument with her new boyfriend, Serge is well aware that he risks losing custody of Lily. On a whim, he therefore decides to pick her up at her karate class to tell her that he was taking her on a trip with her in his Kenworth truck to take part in the Badlands rodeo.

Serge swears to Lily that he got his mother's permission for this trip. But the truth is that he orchestrated his plan in secret, without telling anyone to spend time with his daughter. First excited by the idea of ​​this father-daughter journey, Lily will show signs of concern as the trip progresses. And Serge, meanwhile, will begin to regret his gesture when he sees that the noose is gradually closing in on him.

Promising

Having grown up with a father who worked for 50 years at Kenworth, director Joëlle Desjardins Paquette was inspired by childhood memories to co-write – with Sarah Lévesque – the script for this very promising first feature film. Obviously knowing her subject well, the filmmaker paints an uncompromising portrait of the world of truckers by injecting both tension and poetry into her story. 

If her film touches us right at heart, it's largely thanks to the natural acting of its acting tandem. In his first film role since Piché: between heaven and earth, in 2010, Maxime Le Flaguais impresses by playing this impulsive father who multiplies bad decisions out of love for his daughter. 

As for the young Lilou Roy-Lanouette, discovered a few years ago in the Jouliks of Mariloup Wolfe, she bursts the screen in the skin of this endearing little girl, but torn between both parents. 

Rodeo ★★★1⁄2

A film by Joëlle Desjardins Paquette

With Maxime Le Flaguais and Lilou Roy-Lanouette