Le bonheur est une bête sauvage

Bruno and Maryline move into a small town of the French Apls, chasing their dream for a better life. But their primary enthusiasm becomes disappointment, anger and jealousy.

Annecy is no tourist destination for three working-class Algerian brothers and their father, in the months after their mother has died. Marc is deeply troubled: he tries to stiff drug dealers and then plots revenge. Christophe is released from jail, lands a job, and must overcome various temptations in order to keep it. Olivier, nearing 18, may be falling in love with Hicham...

Two brothers, Eddy and Rocco, had their heyday on the “Indie Rock” scene at the end of the 1990s. We find them ten years later on an island, parading at the head of the local brass band.

When Camille's son was killed in a car accident, the devastating loss proved too much for emotionally fragile mother to bear. Now desperately clinging to any reminder of the son she held so close to her heart, Camille becomes increasingly fixated on Frank - the young man who was not only her child's best friend, but the one who was responsible for the tragic accident that took his life as well. At first, Frank is receptive to Camille's advances. It's not long, however, before the pair's scandalous relationship prompts many of Camille's friends to distance themselves from the increasingly unstable woman. Later, as Camille's obsession with Frank turns menacing, the relationship between grief-stricken mother and her guilt-ridden lover begins to take on ominous undertones.

Through the portraits of young adults excluded from their family home because of their homosexuality, Gaël Morel wants to show the disaster of the worst homophobia, that which is practiced in family. How do young people relearn to live, to respect themselves, and to look to the future after being destroyed by those who should have loved them?

Director Bertrand Guerry followed the construction of a permanent circus tent in the Sablons district of Le Mans. Over the course of two years, punctuated by the ups and downs of the construction site, he gives a voice to the inhabitants and offers a curious look at the promise made to the neighbors, the artists, the children and the adults of a new cultural venue open to all.