L’Arrière pays (1998) - film review

Jacques Pruez, a lesser known actor, returns to his home village in south-west France when he learns that his mother is dying.  He stays around to attend the funeral and support his ageing father.  As he does so, the gulf between the life he once new as a child and his life now as a middle-aged man becomes painfully apparent.

Actor and screenwriter Jacques Nolot directs this poignant and intensely personal work, his first full-length film, with maturity and skill.  The film’s tone is relentlessly sombre, reinforced by some very creditable introspective performances and some achingly beautiful photography.  Whilst the mood becomes a little heavy and wearying towards the end of the film, L’Arrière-pays does offer a touching and ironic portrait of life in rural France, far removed from the cosy idyll that is often perceived by outsiders.

© James Travers 2004

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