Gérald Thomassin

A group of young people leave a disco and bump into a shepherd who is ready to spend his night worshipping Satan.

It is the end of the judicial control of Thierry Chartier, 18 years old. He was a virgin in Heuzecourt, a small village in the north of France populated by farmers and retired miners, where his paternal grandmother lived. He earns his living by helping out in the fields, he helps his grandmother, and would like to take over the farm. But, following an incident, he is condemned to seven years of criminal imprisonment, for complicity of murder, Thierry leaves on parole with an English diploma and a tattoo. But above all a guilt forever anchored. It is now up to him to rebuild his life.

In 1815, young Jacquou lives an idyllic peasant life with his parents in the Périgord region of France. But one day, his childhood happiness is cruelly ended when his father is arrested, after a dispute with the arrogant Count de Nansac. With both his parents dead, Jacquou is adopted by Bonal, a kind priest, under whose influence he grows into an assured, morally upright young man. Now an adult, Jacquou has one desire. To repay the Count de Nansac for the evil he once inflicted on his parents...

In a nursing home for disabled near Toulon, René is unanimously hated by all. With fifty years and suffering from myopathy, has an irascible, rebellious character. But not resist provocations candor and uprightness of Julie, a special educator rookie. He confesses he wants to make love to a woman before her degenerative disease definitely catch it. Then Julie goes after one of the prostitutes who work in caravans along the N7.

A young woman visiting Paris misses the last bus home and finds herself stranded on the outskirts of Paris. Entering a local club, she meets a troubled drug addict.

Marc, a troubled teenager, is bored in his native, depressing city of Sete. One day, a simple phone call makes him aware of the existence of Stephanie, a sister he has never met. Armed with a pistol his mother found, he goes out to find her. He steals money from a perfume shop, and is then stopped by a policeman who wants to search him. In the car, Marc threatens the policeman with his gun, demanding that he helps him find his sister...

Camille, a 20-something dissatisfied with her life, craves the opportunity to give her love to the person who needs it the most. She finds this opportunity in the form of Costa, a homeless ne’er do well, deadbeat dad, and rejected son. Even as their relationship begins to take its toll on them both, Camille finds happiness in her efforts to rescue him from his own self-destruction.

His name is Nicolas, but she calls him “Calino”. She is Nejma, he calls her “Nej’, ma neige”. She just wants to be herself, but he wants her for himself. In him we see a combination of the desire to fit into society and the need for love. But they’re walking on thin ice, and despite all his efforts, his love becomes all-consuming and neither Nej nor reality can yield to his desires.

An unemployed man from the Antilles is implanted with a synthetic embryo by an unscrupulous professor -- and becomes pregnant.

The central role of Louise is portrayed by Elodie Bouchez, who won a 1998 Cannes "Best Actress" award for The Dreamlife of Angels. When Louise has an encounter with homeless Remi (Roschdy Zem), they have a magnetic attraction, but she is already attached to illiterate shoplifter and pickpocket punk Yaya (Gerald Thomassin). Although allied with Yaya in petty crimes, Louise lives with her widowed father (Lou Castel), a devoted writer of fiction. After a Metro bum (Bruce Myers) tells her of his desire to see his young son, she plucks the kid, Gaby (Antoine de Merle), right out of school, making him the newest rookie recruited into their subway gang. Shoplifting in a department store, the young toughs escape the store's security guards by hiding in the ballet rehearsal rooms of the nearby opera. But does Louise really belong with the subway toughs, or is she just pretending? When she's arrested, Louise is forced to reexamine her lifestyle.

First part of a "trilogy of modern times" (the second one is La Blessure, and third - La question humaine). Paria follows the path of two characters, Momo and Victor. Momo –remarkably played by Gérald Thomassin– lives in the streets, while Victor, on the edge of poverty, loses his apartment when he loses his job. Their destinies will come across during the night of the “millennium” which will be celebrated in a social pick-up bus.