“I Love Peru”, “Fires on the Plain”, “Valensole 1965”… Cinema releases for Wednesday, July 9

♦ I Love Peru **

by Hugo David and Raphaël Quenard

Documentary, 1 hour 9 minutes

Struck down in the midst of success by a romantic breakup, Raphaël Quenard dreams of being reincarnated as a condor. A dream that leads him to Peru, in search of the noble animal, on a spiritual and personal quest. He is accompanied by Hugo David, a friend he met on the set of Jean-Baptiste Durand's "Chickentrap" while Durand was directing the making-of feature film.

The all-round actor, who has just written his first novel, Clamser à Tataouine , stars in a documentary with the feel of fiction. Absurd and offbeat, the film alternates between Raphaël Quenard's improvisations and documentary scenes, when, as a beginner, he tried to get advice from established directors and actors in French cinema.

» READ THE REVIEW: “I Love Peru,” Raphaël Quenard in all his states

♦ Fires in the plain **

by Ji Zhang

Chinese film, 1 hour 41 minutes

In December 1997, in northeast China, two taxi drivers were found strangled and their car burned within weeks. Their colleagues demanded that the police identify and arrest the killers quickly. Jiang, an investigator, took charge of the case, but the murders continued, permeating the town of Fentun and its surrounding areas with an atmosphere of fear and mistrust.

Ji Zhang directs a superbly visual film with excellent mastery of the lighting in the night scenes. He effectively paints a portrait of a devastated, industrialized North China, where the crisis divides its population into victims and profiteers. His twisting narrative sometimes loses the viewer. Punctuated by the recurring motif of fire, a symbol of light or destruction, this thriller shows how economic violence turns into physical brutality against the most vulnerable. It becomes heartbreaking when it takes on a romantic tinge against a backdrop of poverty, with two actors, Zhou Dongyu (Li Fei) and Liu Haoran (Zhuang Shu), whose chemistry is as restrained as it is incandescent.

» READ THE REVIEW: “Fires on the Plain”: Broken destinies in a changing China

♦ Valensole 1965 *

by Dominique Fihol

French film, 1 hour 30 minutes

On July 1, 1965, at dawn, Maurice Masse, a farmer specializing in lavender, had a strange encounter in his field: an ovoid craft flew away with a shrill whistle and a blinding light. Sixty years after the events, director Dominique Filhol has captured the witness's statements while remaining on his favorite subject, UFOs, after having filmed the documentaries OVNIS, une affaire d'États (2020) and Le Bureau des OVNIS for Canal+.

Valensole 1965 deals with the most serious issue in French ufology with a certain dreamlike quality. It uses an avalanche of sumptuous images reminiscent of the technique used in Terrence Malick's Tree of Life . This artistic choice enhances the lavender fields, but contrasts with the village chronicle's Pagnolesque hues.

» READ THE REVIEW: “Valensole 1965”, a UFO in the lavender fields

♦ Buffalo Kids **

by Pedro Solis and JJ Garcia Galocha

Spanish animated film, 1 hour 23 minutes

" Nick doesn't need to talk, he says it all with his eyes ." This is what Mary and Tom, two orphans and migrants of Irish origin, learn when their journey from east to west across the United States crosses that of Nick, a paralyzed child. With his new friends, he will live the great adventure in the Wild West of the 19th century.

Despite a very linear narrative, Buffalo Kids is carried by the accuracy of the character of Nick, directly inspired by the son of co-director Pedro Solis, who died in 2022 while also disabled. Without really moving or speaking, this character touches us with his sensitive observation of others. Thanks to clever script ideas, the child establishes himself as one of the central figures of the film. A beautiful work that brings to the screen those whom history tends to forget.