Thierry Godard Movies

A young Kurdish refugee finds friendship from an unlikely source in Welcome, writer-director Philippe Lioret's dramatic chronicle of intersecting lives. The tale unfurls in Calais, a seaside community in the north of France where one can glimpse the white cliffs of Dover, England with the naked eye. Vincent Lindon stars as Simon, a local swimming instructor privately reeling in turmoil because he dreads an imminent divorce from his wife (Audrey Dana). Soon, his path unexpectedly criss-crosses with that of Bilal (Firat Ayverdi), a 17-year-old Kurdish refugee with two aspirations: swim the English Channel, and join his girlfriend in England following a lengthy separation. Despite their differing ages, the two men discover that they have a fair amount in common, and soon forge a tight bond marked by similar goals. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

As summer fades from a small French town, young adolescent Sebastien (Baptiste Bertin) struggles with his own sexual identity and with internalized, often contradictory erotic feelings, in director Franck Guerin's understated coming-of-ager A Summer Day. Sebastien spends the majority of his time assisting his single father (Philippe Fretun) in the latter's garage, but warms even more to palling around with male friend Mickael (Theo Frilet - a boy he quietly finds sensual and erotic. When a bizarre accident involving a soccer goal post kills Mikael, the event not only plunges the town into a state of perpetual horror, but leaves Sebastien doubly conflicted and confused about his feelings for the boy. He finds a partial salvation in a friendship with Mickael's mother (Catherine Mouchet); to the same degree that Sebastien seeks her out, filially, as a maternal surrogate, she looks to him as a much-needed substitute for the son she lost. Meanwhile, Sebastien's burgeoning awareness of his own homosexuality grows more concrete, but an open admission and embrace of this identity seem utterly impossible given the gross hypocrisies and backward sexual repression that plague the community. Guerin and Agnes Feuvre co-authored the script. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi