Synopsis
Léo, a 22-year-old homeless sex worker searches for genuine love on the streets of Strasbourg.
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Cast
- Félix MaritaudLéo
- Éric BernardAhd
- Nicolas DiblaMihal
- Philippe OhrelClaude
- Marie SeuxDoctor
- Jean-Pierre BastéBookseller
- Lucas BlegerDisabled man
- Camille Müller
- Philippe Couerre
Recommendations
- 100
Screen Daily
Gut-punchingly authentic with radiant moments of tenderness where least expected, intimate yet not voyeuristic, this first feature by writer-director Camille Vidal-Naquet gets the balance between looking-for-love and settling-for-sensation exactly right. - 91
The Playlist
Sauvage captures the multitude of emotion or lack of, that come with Leo’s tricks. There’s jealousy, pain, excitement, cruelty and even monotonous apathy where you’d least expect it. - 90
Variety
There are fleeting moments of wit, bliss and even tenderness amid the gritty severity, as Vidal-Naquet perceptively portrays not just the lonely, drug-fueled rigors of the hustler lifestyle, but the simultaneously competitive and supportive fraternal community that sustains it. - 80
Vanity Fair
Sauvage is often difficult viewing, and Leo tries our patience and compassion as anyone habitually treating themselves so poorly can. Nevertheless, the film achieves a sort of grace, in moments of sweetness and stillness, when the fullness of Leo’s being—be it ravaged and weary—is palpable and, finally, undeniable. - 80
Empire
This is a sexually frank and arrestingly tender perspective of a young man in freefall. It occasionally leans too far into the horrors of street prostitution, but it’s mostly an open-minded view of its shiftless main character. - 75
IndieWire
From its title on down, Sauvage / Wild is a film that’s torn between different translations of the same basic principle — one soft and the other hard. There’s no judgement of him whatsoever, to the point where it sometimes feels like the character is more of a construct than he is a fully dimension person of flesh and blood. - 75
Slant Magazine
The film is a tale about how those who spiral so far out of control become blind, if not immune, to the severity of their symptoms. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
Sauvage has its longueurs, at times seeming stuck in a circuitous groove with too little forward momentum. However, the movie is never banal. It's a fully inhabited world that pulls us in.
