''Father & Soldier'' (french: Tirailleurs) is a 2022 French-Senegalese

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Mathieu Vadepied, starring

Omar Sy Omar Sy (, ff, 𞤌𞤥𞤢𞤪 𞤅𞤭, Omar Si; born 20 January 1978) is a French actor, best known in France for his sketches with Fred Testot on the '' Service après-vente des émissions'' television show on Canal+ (2005–2012). He gaine ...

, Alassane Diong, and

Jonas Bloquet Jonas Bloquet (born 10 July 1992) is a Belgian actor, known for his roles as Jonas in '' Private Lessons'' (2009), which earned him a Magritte Award nomination for Most Promising Actor, Vincent Leblanc in ''Elle'' (2016), for which he was nomin ...

. It was produced by Omar Sy and Bruno Nahon. The film opened the

Un Certain Regard (, meaning 'a certain glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films w ...

section in competition at the

75th Cannes Film Festival The 75th annual Cannes Film Festival is an upcoming film festival scheduled to take place from 17 to 28 May 2022. The festival will see a tribute to actor Tom Cruise, whose film '' Top Gun: Maverick'' is due to premiere at the festival. The off ...

on 18 May 2022, and was released in theaters in France by Gaumont on 4 January 2023, and in Senegal by Pathé BC Afrique on 6 January 2023.

Plot

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in 1917,

Senegalese Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

Bakary Diallo enlists in the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed For ...

in order to be with his 17-year-old son, Thierno, who was forcibly recruited. Sent to the Western front, they try to find the means to return to Senegal - Bakary through underground contacts and Thierno through the command structure.

Cast

as Bakary Diallo * Alassane Diong as Thierno *

as Lieutenant Chambreau * Bamar Kane as Salif * Oumar Sey as Abdoulaye

Production

With a $14 million budget, the film was produced by Bruno Nahon's Unité and Omar Sy's Korokoro in co-production with Gaumont,

France 3 Cinéma France 3 () is a French free-to-air public television channel and part of the France Télévisions group, which also includes France 2, France 4, France 5 and France Info. It is made up of a network of regional television services providing ...

, Mille Soleils and Sy Possible Africa. It was co-produced by Mathieu Vadepied, with Maryvonne Le Meur and Caroline Nataf serving as associate producers. The screenplay was written by Vadepied and Olivier Demangel.

Alexandre Desplat Alexandre Michel Gérard Desplat (; born 23 August 1961) is a French film composer and conductor. He has won many awards, including two Academy Awards, for his musical scores to the films ''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' and ''The Shape of Water'', ...

composed the original music for the film.

Filming

The film was shot in France from 23 August 2021 to 13 October 2021, before moving on to Senegal in January 2022. It was partially shot in Neufmaison, Ardennes.

Release

A 1-minute clip from the film was released on Le HuffPost's

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel on 19 May 2022. On 10 November 2022, the film's official poster and official trailer were released. The film had its world premiere at the

as the opening film in the

section on 18 May 2022. It will be distributed in France and internationally by Gaumont. It was released in French cinemas on 4 January 2023, and in Senegal by Pathé BC Afrique on 6 January 2023.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a score of 83% based on 6 reviews. AlloCiné, a French cinema website, gave the film an average rating of 3.3/5, based on a survey of 27 French reviews.

Box Office

The film sold over 55,000 tickets on its first day of release in France, with 2,034 viewers per screening in 554 theaters. During its first weekend of release, ''Father & Soldier'' sold over 456,000 tickets, ranking number two at the box office, behind '' Avatar: The Way of Water'' (1,6 million entries), and in front of '' Puss in Boots: The Last Wish'' (168,061 entries)

Accolades

References

External links

* *
''Father & Soldier''
at

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

2022 films 2022 drama films 2022 war drama films French World War I films Films set in 1917 French war drama films Senegalese drama films Films set in France Films shot in France Films set in Senegal Films shot in Senegal Gaumont Film Company films Films scored by Alexandre Desplat 2020s French films {{Senegal-film-stub