Two neighbours live opposite each other on a country road somewhere in Northern France. They hate each other and life for them is nothing but a daily painful confrontation. One day, in the course of a violent dispute, an agricultural trailer knocks them over and sends them to hospital. They are both released, in wheelchairs, paralysed from the waist down. Giving up on the idea of suicide, they each decide to embark on a personal journey. However, before they know it, they both end up on the same railway platform, waiting for the same train. Neighbours once again, for better or for worse. An odd and unpredictable odyssey then starts, taking them all the way to Finland where they intend to obtain financial compensation from the manufacturers of the agricultural machinery responsible for their accident. In this film, the disabled protagonists are simply normal, at times a bit stupid, a bit nasty, often funny. These two wheelchair-bound travellers will somehow live an initiatory journey, in search of one’s neighbour.
AAltra
Benoît Delépine, Gustave de Kervern
IndieLisboa 2005 • International Competition
France, Belgium, Fiction, 2004, 93′