Synopsis
Drama about a father and son who set out to find their missing daughter/sister with the help of an American headhunter.
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Cast
- François DamiensAlain Balland
- Finnegan OldfieldGeorges Balland, aka 'Kid'
- Agathe DronneNicole Balland
- Iliana ZabethKelly Balland / Aafia Khalid
- Maxim DriesenGeorges Balland, aka 'Kid', at 13
- Mounir MargoumAhmed, the Islamist
- Ellora TorchiaShazhana, Ahmed's wife
- Djemel BarekAhmed's father
- Leïla SaadaliAhmed's mother
- Antoine ChappeyCharles
Recommendations
- 90
The New York Times
Unfolding with a reticence that’s occasionally confusing, Les Cowboys presents a suggestive, almost abstract take on terror and the generational toxicity of bigotry. - 80
Village Voice
The strange, ever-changing result is, at times, as original as loose remakes come, with Bidegain using his hallowed source material as a springboard for something rare: a "writer's movie" that loses nothing in the jump from script to screen. - 80
Los Angeles Times
Its strength lies in the way it continually collapses the distance between people and cultures, forcing its characters to reckon with what they perceive as strange and unfamiliar. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
An absorbing, multilayered story about the search for a French girl who goes missing with her Muslim boyfriend, starts in a very un-French way: with cowboys, horses, a Marlboro Man-like billboard and country-and-western music. - 75
Rolling Stone
Les Cowboys pulls in with no intention of letting you go. It's a workout worth taking. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Unlike the films he’s co-written for Jacques Audiard (A Prophet, Rust and Bone…), which often rely on Audiard’s stunning capacity to foreground grand emotional sweeps, this is a much more constructed narrative that could only be described as a writer’s film, though one with several pleasant — if shocking is your idea of pleasant, that is — surprises up its sleeve. - 67
The Film Stage
Will it change my consideration of European-Islamic relations? No. Have I thought about its moral quandaries in the days since seeing this film? More than most others, at least. Does Les Cowboys create an itch to again see The Searchers? Absolutely — and that alone is a fairly strong end result. - 60
TheWrap
Though Bidegain’s effort has its moments, it never gels into a cohesive, intimate-yet-expansive whole.
